(CNN) -- This year has provided something of a bumper crop of Catholic candidates. Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich in the Republican primaries, Joe Biden and Paul Ryan in the general election. Given the endless cycle of sin and guilt that we have to live with, sometimes it feels like it's easier for a Catholic to get elected president than it is to get into heaven. But political strength doesn't necessarily mean political unity. Today's Catholic vote is divided by intensity of faith. According to Gallup, the "very religious" lean toward Romney and the "nonreligious" prefer Obama, by significant margins. This reflects an internal story of conflict between liberal and conservative perspectives on what it means to be a Catholic. Biden and Ryan stand on either side of that debate, and their selections as running mates signal vastly different approaches to winning the Catholic vote.
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Tim Stanley: The VP candidates reflect divide between liberal and conservative Catholicism
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He says Biden is a post-Vatican II Catholic aimed at social justice and accessible faith
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He says Ryan hews to traditional Catholicism; record is anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage
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Stanley: Ryan will have to show social compassion with fiscal conservatism
By contrast, Paul Ryan's engagement with the @placeholder power is all hard power.