When US Democratic Party presidential candidate senator Barack Obama chose Senator Joe Biden, 65, as his running mate for the White House, this put on the Democratic ticket a Catholic who supports legal abortion but who on other issues has been an ally for the Church's public policy interests.

On issues including imm-igration, minimum wage, providing health care for all children, and reinstating the assault weapons ban, his positions have been close to those of the Church.

Chris Korzen, executive director of Catholics United, a non-partisan organisation that promotes the Church's social justice message in the political arena, called Biden's selection a positive development.

He said Biden's commitment to his Catholicism "has inspired his advocacy on issues such as genocide, universal health care, education, workers' rights and violence against women".

On the other hand, Phil Lawler, editor of the Catholic World News website, said on a blog post on the morning of the announ-cement that an Obama-Biden ticket would ensure a fresh debate on whether Catholic politicians who support legal abortion should be denied Communion. "The discussion can only be helpful," Lawler wrote, because of the "powerful witness" of bishops who would refuse the Eucharist to such politicians.

In a 2007 interview with the Christian Science Monitor, when he was a candidate for president himself, Biden said he grew up at a time of great changes in the Church both in structure and in attitudes after Vatican Council II.

"I was raised at a time when the Catholic Church was fertile with new ideas and open discussion about some of the basic social teaching of the Catholic Church," Biden said, "Questioning was not criticised; it was encouraged."