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Analysis
A half century ago, John F. Kennedy was elected the first Catholic president of the United States because he convinced American voters that he wouldn't take orders from the pope.
Now, however, Catholic politicians across the United States, particularly those running for national office, are increasingly facing criticism from some members of the hierarchy -- because they won't take orders from the church.
Consider:
But it's not just today's Catholic politicians who are being targeted by this small corps of activist bishops. Even Kennedy, dead now for almost 47 years, is being attacked.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Read a related editorial: Private beliefs and public acts ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput (CNS/Denver Catholic Register/James Baca)Indeed, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver has been taking the late president to task in print and in public for at least six years, most recently in an address at Houston Baptist University on March 1.
He even injected himself into Kerry's 2004 presidential run with a column in the diocesan newspaper, with little more than a month to go before the election, blasting retrospectively Kennedy and former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, a Catholic who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984, for "making a deal with the devil."
Chaput summarized the Kennedy-Cuomo approach to politics as "it's OK to be Catholic in public service as long as you're willing to jettison what's inconveniently "Catholic.' " He slammed Cuomo for his support of abortion funding for poor women, and said Kennedy set a template for his coreligionist politicians: "Be American first, be Catholic second."
Then, with a pointed jab, the archbishop wrote, "This was an easy calculus for Kennedy, who wore his faith loosely anyway."
That certainly seems true. Kennedy was a womanizer who never gave the impression of devoutness, although he liked to be seen in the company of Cardinal Richard Cushing of Boston.
Other presidents of that era didn't trumpet their faith either. Richard Nixon was raised a Quaker, but Norman Vincent Peale, a Protestant preacher and motivational writer, said, "I don't know that he ever let it bother him."
Still, no one knows what's in a person's heart. Were Kennedy's efforts on behalf of civil rights the result of his Catholic upbringing and affiliation? What about his work to limit nuclear weapons testing?
During the 1960 campaign, Kennedy made it clear, in a speech to a group of Protestant ministers in Houston, that, in running the nation, he would be his own man:
I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute -- where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be a Catholic) how to act and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote. " I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish -- where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the pope, the National Council of Churches, or any other ecclesiastical source.
The idea of a Catholic as the nation's chief executive had long been a scary threat to many Americans. Indeed, during the campaign of Democrat Al Smith, the first Catholic nominee for the presidency in 1924, a Methodist bishop declared: "No governor can kiss the papal ring and get within a gunshot of the White House."
Kennedy calmed those fears by his refusal to proselytize -- or lead -- on behalf of his faith.
As he said in the Houston speech, "I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president, who happens also to be a Catholic."
Kennedy's election was the result of -- and helped accelerate -- great changes that had been taking place within the United States. No longer were Catholics an immigrant bloc, poorly educated and fit for little more than hard labor. By 1960, they were well on their way to assimilating fully into the national fabric, solidly middle-class and increasingly suburban.
True, in that year, they gave 83 percent of their votes to their fellow Catholic. But ever since, they have tended to split their ballots, reflecting the liberal-conservative divide in the country.
For instance, Catholics gave majorities to Democrats Jimmy Carter (57 percent) in 1976 and Bill Clinton (53 percent) in 1990, but, in other years, Republicans came out on top, such as Ronald Reagan (51 percent in 1980 and 55 percent in 1984).
One measure of the assimilation of American Catholics is Joe Biden.
In taking the oath as vice president in January 2009, Biden became the first Catholic to serve in that office. Hardly anyone considered it a watershed of any sort (especially given the true national significance of the election of his running mate, Barack Obama, as the first African-American president). Certainly no one paid much attention.
Initially, after Kennedy's victory, it was the fashion for the national parties to nominate Catholics for the vice presidency -- Republican William Miller in 1964 and Democrats Edmund Muskie in 1968 and Sargent Shriver in 1972. But after that, until Biden, the only other Catholic VP nominee was Ferraro.
That's because Catholics weren't voting for Catholics anymore simply on the basis of religion. In fact, when the only other Catholic, Kerry, ran for the presidency in 2004, his opponent, incumbent George W. Bush, won the Catholic vote with 52 percent.
Another measure of Catholic assimilation over the past half century is the U.S. Supreme Court.
Six of the nine members of the court are Catholic. Two of the other members are Jewish, soon to be joined by a third, Elena Kagan, nominated by Obama to replace the retiring John Paul Stevens, a Protestant.
The thought of a Supreme Court without a Protestant would have been anathema to many Americans, even half a century ago. In its entire 221-year history, only six other Catholics have served on the court.
Yet, in some real way today, Catholics are the new Protestants in the United States, solidly mainstream but not tied to a group philosophy.
Four of the Catholic justices are conservative, while Anthony Kennedy has been a swing vote at times. Sonia Sotomayor, appointed last year by Obama, is expected to be more liberal. The Congressional confirmation hearings on each of these focused on political philosophy, not on religion.
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