A prominent US Catholic leader has criticized CatholicDemocrats who are pro-abortion.

Philadelphia archbishop Charles J. Chaput describes abortion as a “very serious issue that requires absolute adherence on the part of Catholics.”

Speaking to the Catholic News Service, the religious leader slammed pro-choice CatholicDemocrats.

“We are Catholics before we areDemocrat, we are Catholics before we are Republican, we are even Catholics before we are Americans,” Archbishop Chaput said, “because we know that God has a demand on us prior to any government demand on us.

“We just have to be insistent.Catholicidentity takes precedence over everything.”

He continued: “And if we don’t stand united on this issue, we’re bound to failure — not only in the area of protecting unborn human life but in maintaining our religious freedom.”

Speaking about Democrats; ‘embrace’ of abortion, the Archbishop expressed regret that Catholicshad not done more to stop the legalization of abortions.

Read more news on the topic of abortion here.

“Catholics have been historically part of theDemocratic party in great numbers and I think could have really stopped that development and movement if they had tried. But they didn’t,” he said.

"You can't trust the Republicans to be pro-life 20 years from now," he said. "You can't let any party take your vote for granted. And that's unfortunately what's happened. I think many of the Democrats have (taken)Democrat Catholic votes for granted because they'll go with them no matter what the party position might be on abortion."

Both Catholics, the two vice presidential candidates Paul Ryan and Joe Biden are both pro-life.

Watch the interview, which begins with video footage of Paul Ryan and Joe Biden each explaining their approach to the issue of abortion: