Pete Buttigieg, the Democratic presidential candidate and flavour of the month, offers America “generational leadership” – and I’m finally old enough to understand what that means. I’m 36, he’s 37 and he’s one of the first politicians I can identify my own life with, including the fact that he got into God at university. Me at Cambridge; Pete as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. But while I gravitated towards Catholicism, he wound up an Episcopalian, despite being the son of a Maltese immigrant, baptised Catholic, a pupil at a Catholic high school and scion of a famously Catholic town, South Bend. The contrast with Joe Biden is fascinating. Joe embodies the Vatican II generation of Catholic Democrat. Born into a mostly Irish family in the northeast; evolved leftwards on gay rights and abortion; probably a bit embarrassed by parts of the Catechism; but has stuck with the faith nevertheless because he is devout and the Church is family. Biden admires Pope Francis and you can guess why. Both men represent the Sixties’ emphasis upon the social gospel, moving towards something more explicitly egalitarian that speaks to an audience beyond the Church. But what are the fruits for the Church itself? Well, turnout on a Sunday isn’t strong and politicians like Joe Biden publicly contradict Catholic teaching with near-impunity – and then there’s the bleeding away of the future generation. Let’s face it: not only should Pete Buttigieg be a Catholic for his own benefit but we also need men of his qualities. Aside from being well-educated and articulate, he did a tour with the military and put his life on the line of his country; things that cannot be said for Donald Trump. He’s also gay. And married. How his sexuality might have shaped his attitude towards Catholicism is unclear, but liberals like Mr Biden would probably argue that so long as the Church sticks to its ancient moral teachings, the more it’ll alienate people of ability like Mr Buttigieg. Change or die! But it’s obvious, 50-odd years after Vatican II, that these beliefs are not up for negotiation (just ask Pope Francis, who remains utterly orthodox) so the bigger, more compelling challenge is how the Church speaks to a generation raised in the cultural landscape shaped by liberals like Mr Biden. How do we address people who ought to be with us but now regard the private lives they have built for themselves in this liberal social order as non-negotiable? I’m not sure I have an answer, but what’s obvious is that the Vatican II generation’s downplaying of social conservatism and stress upon socialism hasn’t made the slightest bit of difference. On the contrary, growth seems to be where there is witness, authority and beauty. I note that Mayor Pete said in an interview “if there’s going to be music, I want an organ, not a guitar” - so he sounds pretty ripe for conversion to me.