JFK and the Catholic Church

It is astonishing and depressing that 42 years ago, John F. Kennedy had to pledge to voters that as president he would not owe allegiance to the Vatican. Today, John F. Kerry is criticized for not being sufficiently obedient to Catholic dogma. It is also telling that the Time magazine story doesn't mention Catholic doctrine against the death penalty or the Pope's opposition to the war in Iraq (omissions consistent with other stories I've seen on this issue in recent days, which gives me the feeling that somehow Rove & Co. are involved in this new oral tradition).

"...because I am a Catholic... the real issues in this campaign have been obscured -- perhaps deliberately, in some quarters less responsible than this. So it is apparently necessary for me to state once again -- not what kind of church I believe in, for that should be important only to me -- but what kind of America I believe in.

"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 Catholic -- how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference, and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him, or the people who might elect him."

Yes, we are living in a different world -- post Roe v Wade -- since the 1960 election, but the essential issue is the same. Until Roe is overturned (and it will be if Bush is reelected), the issue is whether a politician who happens to be a Catholic has a duty to uphold the law of the land or Catholic doctrine. A policitician can (don't laugh) vote his or her conscience, but not his religion's dogma.