U.S. ELECTIONS/ Catholic presidential candidates: JFK vs Santorum

Catholic Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum, to emphasize that he does not believe in the absolute separation between Church and State, said that he “almost threw up” after reading President John F. Kennedy’s 1960 speech on the relation between his Catholic identity to how he would govern if elected President of the United States.

Santorum made his remarks on “This Week” on ABC News last Saturday. He said: “The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country.”

During his Presidential campaign on September 12, 1960, Kennedy had said that his religion would not be a factor in his leadership.  In his words:

"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.

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–where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials–and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all."

On NBC's program “Meet the Press” Santorum insisted that “the idea that people of faith have to keep it a private affair — my goodness, what does that mean? The only place that — the only thing you’re allowed to bring to the public square is secular ideas or things that are not motivated by faith?”

On ABC, Mr. Santorum had said that the First Amendment “means bringing everybody, people of faith and no faith, into the public square," whereas in his campaign speech Kennedy had said that "faith is not allowed in the public square."