Among and alongside the highly educated white voters in Chester County who are now in the crosshairs of an intense election battle, local Catholics are split between voting Republican like they have in the past or voting Democrat in a world increasingly concerned about social justice.

Pope Francis’s shift in focus to inclusion and poverty, as well as Donald Trump’s misbehavior and divisiveness, has given Catholics reason to stray from their Republican roots.

“Trump is the exception to the rule,” Paoli’s Carol Robinson said in a report in The New York Times by Jason Horowitz. “He’s a loose cannon.”

But plenty of Catholics in Chester County still have grave concerns about Hillary Clinton’s unabashed promotion of abortion and same-sex marriage and her proposals for further erosions of religious liberties. Her criticism of Catholics in leaked emails certainly haven’t helped either.

“I’m a Catholic, and I’m pro-life. I have to vote for Trump because he will appoint Supreme Court justices,” Malvern mass attender Rose Benner said. “That’s the only reason. My whole family will vote for Trump because of that.”

Read more about the political battleground local Catholics are finding themselves in from The New York Times here, and check out previous VISTA Today election coverage here.