Whether U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan's Roman Catholicism played into his selection as Mitt Romney's running mate is up for debate. By all accounts, Ryan's primary attractions have been his reputation as a budget hawk and his conservative credentials, popular even with the tea party.

But Ryan's faith is likely to help Romney on a number of fronts, political observers say, including placating evangelicals, who've found common cause with conservative Catholics on such issues as abortion and gay marriage, and shifting the religious debate from Romney's Mormonism to the Catholic bishops' campaign for religious freedom.

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