US Vice-President Joe Biden (pictured) is another of those Catholic politicians who likes to say, ‘I’m pro-life, but’. What he means is, ‘I’m pro-life but I wouldn’t dream of imposing my views on anyone who disagrees with me’.

However, when it comes to values he really holds dear, the Veep takes a different approach entirely.

For example, in his debate last week with Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s running mate, Biden had this to say: “My religion defines who I am. And I’ve been a practicing Catholic my whole life. And it has particularly informed my social doctrine. Catholic social doctrine talks about taking care of those who — who can’t take care of themselves, people who need help.”

Here he was almost certainly referring to public programmes that help the poor. Fine. Such programmes in general are indeed fully compatible with Catholic teaching. But they most certainly involve a view of morality that involves imposing that morality upon people who do not share it, principally libertarians.

Libertarians tend to disagree with redistributionist programmes and object to paying the taxes that fund them. Some libertarians believe it is immoral to take their money in order to give it to poorer people. They believe such transactions should be purely voluntary.

Somehow I doubt if Joe Biden lies awake at night worrying that he is imposing his morality upon libertarians.

In the above quoted statement, Biden says his Catholicism impels him to help those who can’t help themselves. An unborn child is particularly helpless. It’s funny he can’t see that.

Finally, Biden supports his administration’s policy of forcing Catholic organisations to place their employees in insurance schemes that provide free sterilisation, contraception and the Morning-After-Pill (an abortifacient) despite Catholic teaching against all these things.

So there is another example of Joe Biden supporting the imposition of one morality upon another morality.