How Opus Dei Conquered D.C.

[tanyev]

3. How the worm turns.

The Roman Catholic religious faith of Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy played a major role in the 1960 Presidential campaign. Widespread anti-Catholic agitation by Protestant groups which feared the election of a Roman Catholic to the Presidency was answered by other Protestant groups and leaders in both political parties who denounced the introduction of a “religious issue” into the campaign.

The convention of the American Council of Christian Churches April 28 unanimously passed a resolution disapproving a Catholic as President. The resolution said, in part, “The present accusation of bigotry by Kennedy supporters and others we believe is an effort to silence those who are raising pertinent questions relative to our historic American heritage of separation of church and state. Therefore, the American Council of Christian Churches goes on record as being opposed to a Roman Catholic for President.”

The National Assn. of Evangelicals April 29 adopted a resolution expressing doubt that a Catholic President “could or would resist fully the pressures of the ecclesiastical hierarchy…. The real source of unrest in respect to church-state separation is the total lack of any convincing commitment of the Roman Catholic Church to the principle of church-state separation….”

The American Lutheran Magazine April 19 called for an official declaration by the Roman Catholic Church that “its traditional position of union or collaboration of church and state” did not apply to the United States.

https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal60-880-28174-1331407