Biden speaking.jpg Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks Oct. 26, 2019, at the Second Step Presidential Justice Forum at Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina (CNS/Reuters/Sam Wolfe)

Editor's note: This is the first of a series of essays written by supporters of the five Democratic presidential candidates with the best showing in Monday's Iowa caucuses. We'll present them alphabetically, beginning with Joe Biden, followed by Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in the days ahead. The assignment: Write a Catholic case for your candidate focused on how Catholic social teaching/traditions — and/or your own conscience — have informed your choice.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus gave a final instruction to his disciples, "Love one another." Love is not just a command to those of us sitting in the pews but also to our leaders. Exhibiting love and compassion toward others is an important measure of character. Years ago, one political scientist likened the presidency to a "pontifex maximus," citing Ronald Reagan as a model. Upon leaving office, Republican Reagan won plaudits from Democrat Mario Cuomo: "By his personal conduct when he's shot, when he's told he has cancer, when he goes to Normandy — the way he's comported himself has been a moral instruction to my children."

Donald Trump hardly meets the presidential charge to act as a pontifex maximus. On Twitter, he relishes name-calling, denounces opponents as "scum," and threatens retribution to those who dare oppose him. Love may be Christianity's motto, but it hardly comports with Trump's politics of hate. The bishops instruct us that "all individuals, nations, and members of the global community have the duty to place the needs of others ahead of selfish desires to possess and exploit the good things that come from God." The ego-centric Trump presidency refutes their admonition against pursuing "selfish desires." Former Vice President Joe Biden wants to restore the "soul of the nation." Such a restoration is urgent. In 2017, neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and white supremacists marched in Charlottesville, Virginia. A counterdemonstration ensued and a woman was killed. Following the melee, Trump declared that there were "very fine people on both sides." Describing the "crazed, angry faces illuminated by torches," Biden asserted that Trump "publicly proclaimed a moral equivalency … between the neo-Nazis and Klansmen and those who would oppose their venom and hate," thereby emboldening white supremacists "with messages of comfort and support." Monday night's Iowa caucus results were fraught with difficulties and did nothing to alter the state of the Democratic contest. What is unchanged is that Biden's candidacy speaks to the national necessity for a moral cleansing. Such a purification begins with the commandment, "Love one another." Trump's actions contradict Jesus's final command. In his first days in office, he issued a Muslim travel ban and began building a physical wall of exclusion. Such actions violate Christianity's command to welcome the stranger. Pope Francis warns that a "globalization of indifference" is afoot in the U.S. and elsewhere — an indifference that disregards what St. John Paul II called the "dignity of the human person."

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Prior presidents often used their pulpits to call for mutual respect and tolerance. Writing to the Jewish congregants of Newport, Rhode Island, George Washington declared: "[T]he Government of the United States … gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance." But under Trump, prejudice against Hispanic immigrants has resulted in children imprisoned in cages and transported to disparate regions — many never to reunite with their parents. As Francis instructs us, "God's word teaches that our brothers and sisters are the prolongation of the incarnation for each of us," echoing Jesus's words, "As you did it to one of these, the least of my brethren, you did it to me." By engaging in a politics of bullying and exclusion, Trump has taken a sledgehammer to the idea that the president act as a "pontifex maximus." His Twitter rants, name-calling, and threats have emptied the presidency as a repository of moral instruction. Biden remembers his father repeatedly telling him, "Joey, there's no greater sin than the abuse of power." Remembering that admonition, Biden entered politics as a civil rights champion, sponsored the Violence Against Women Act, embraced healthcare reform that refused to discriminate against those with "pre-existing conditions," and fought for hard-working families who wanted to give their children a foothold on the ladder of opportunity.

Biden speaking at McCain memorial cc.jpg Former Vice President Joe Biden, a Catholic, speaks during an Aug. 30, 2018, memorial service for U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., at North Phoenix Baptist Church. (CNS/Reuters/Brian Snyder)