Reply #1: Excellent article -- thanks for posting it.

[DemBones DemBones]

I never knew this bit about people thinking Al Smith" was somehow plotting to build a (presumably figurative) tunnel to Rome."

But I remember when Kennedy was elected and one of the jokes told was that the motto "In God We Trust" would be changed to "In the Pope We Hope."

:eyes:


(more from article)


Catholics have a long history of confronting the idea that they are somehow different than mainstream America. In 1928, when Democratic New York Gov. Al Smith became the first Catholic nominated for President by a major party, fears were expressed that he was somehow plotting to build a (presumably figurative) tunnel to Rome.

Decades later, in 1960, Kennedy had to confront that same bias, in a remarkable speech that warned against using any religious test for public office, "even by indirection."

"Today, I may be the victim, but tomorrow it may be you," Kennedy told the ministers in Houston, "until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped apart at a time of great national peril."

Catholics understand all too well the underpinnings of the Bush administration's tawdry attempt to use Roberts' and Miers' religious beliefs - even, in Kennedy's word, by "indirection" - in the furtherance of their political agenda.