What do two Catholic vice-presidential candidates and the Year of Faith have in common? Simple. All three shine forth as examples of where the Catholic Church is heading.

If you watched the vice-presidential debate last week there came a moment towards the end of the evening when both Joe Biden and Paul Ryan reflected on their faith in the context of the abortion question. Without getting into what each thinks about this perennial controversy, it seems much more instructive to look at how they view their Catholicism.

Joe Biden professes a devout faith. Some of his friends even say he prays a daily rosary. Yet, Mr. Biden made it clear to America that his faith is a private one and he has a duty not to wear it on his sleeve or let it influence his legislating in the public sphere. Faith should be private, he believes.

Paul Ryan also professes a devout faith. Yet he is equally clear that his faith forms his public actions and drives his public decisions. His Catholic faith is lived publicly and Catholic values infuse his legislation and his professional life.

Neither Joe Biden or Paul Ryan is perfect, but Mr. Biden’s views on how Catholics live a public life are archaic and doomed to extinction. Mr. Ryan’s views on Catholicism and the world are prophetic and reflect the pope’s ideas that have led to the Year of Faith.

In Pope Benedict’s view, the Church must engage a secular world that is hostile to the faith. In order to do this, Catholics must be knowledgeable in their beliefs and courageous in living them in the public sphere.

Catholics no longer have the luxury of professing their faith on Sunday and living the world’s values the rest of the week. The pope has made it clear that the bold strategy of radically engaging and critiquing the world’s values is going to lead to a smaller Church, not because we are retrenching, but because we are becoming true evangelists, true preachers of the Word.

Mr. Biden’s Catholicism, honestly held by him, is one familiar to many American Catholics. Negatively, it has been portrayed as cafeteria Catholicism where one picks and chooses which Catholic beliefs to hold. It is a faith satirized by “Saturday Night Live” last week when the actor impersonating Mr. Biden said that he was a “real world Catholic.” The faux Biden then said,“I accept the teachings of the Catholic Church, but then I ignore them and do whatever I want.”

It’s kind of sad when the secular media can see the truth while many Catholics lie to themselves thinking that this watered down version of the faith is noble and true.

The Year of Faith is a time to get back to basics, to recover and renew Vatican II’s call for Catholics to engage the modern world, not at the expense of diluting our faith, but with the courage of convicted Christians on fire with the love of Christ and wishing to share their experience of God with others.

If the comedians of “Saturday Night Live” are smart enough to see the weakness of cafeteria Catholicism, the question remains whether Catholics in America will recognize that only a renewed, Spirit-driven, passionate faith based on Scripture and tradition will survive this present age’s hatred of God and religion.