Sixty-five years ago, millions of Catholic Americans were uncomfortable, even worried, some indignant.
Every individual Catholic American’s loyalty to this country was being questioned by politicians, religious figures, in classrooms, in the media, discussed at every family dinner table. Billy Graham, who already had a wide following among evangelical Protestants, publicly and expressly wondered if a Catholic could be trusted to abide by, and defend, American constitutional requirements and American laws.
Provoking all this was the presidential candidacy of U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy, who won his first primary election March 8, 1960. In Graham’s mind, Kennedy was the perfect example of a Catholic American who would not be loyal to the country if push came to shove.
The conundrum of a Catholic president
Kennedy, born into a historically Catholic family, always openly identified himself as a Catholic. He attended Mass every single Sunday, belonged to the Knights of Columbus, was married to a Catholic in the Church and had their child baptized as a Catholic. His family was friendly with cardinals and bishops and generously supported Catholic causes and institutions.
If elected, would he take orders from cardinals and bishops? Would Pope St. John XXIII, behind the scenes, run the United States?
Two of the big issues were federal aid to Catholic schools and birth control. The Catholic school system was vast and expensive. Some states outlawed birth control by forbidding sales of birth control devices. (“The Pill” had not been invented. In 1965, the Supreme Court declared legal bans on birth control unconstitutional.)
Would Kennedy demand that the government fund parochial schools and call for federal legislation to outlaw birth control nationally? His Church emphatically taught that morality affected both issues.
Would he advocate making divorce harder to obtain or eliminating it altogether? After all, Catholic Ireland, Italy and Spain forbade divorce. He opposed legalizing abortion, not yet an issue since almost every American, of any, or no, religion, considered abortion barbaric.
Kennedy said that, if elected, he would make decisions solely on what he thought was best for the country.
In the election, he won an unbelievable 80% of the Catholic votes, but his response to the fears of many Protestants troubled some Catholics, who said that he should either be a Catholic, or not “pretend” to be.
As fate would have it, no situation after his election created a choice between Catholic doctrine and action contrary to it.
The foolishness of rejecting the Church’s wisdom
Not being bound by Church teaching while at the same time declaring Catholic identity is very much alive today among American Catholics, many of whom have “take it or leave it” attitude when it comes to official Catholic teaching,
Some historians believe that this pattern got a boost from President Kennedy’s approach, but in 1968, Pope St. Paul VI‘s encyclical, “Humanae Vitae,” declaring artificial birth control immoral, embedded it in Catholic culture.
From the beginning, for many Catholics, the encyclical was a dead letter. Few even bother to read it, to understand its reasoning. Data suggests that Catholics procure abortions at a level equal to that of the general population. The Church says that capital punishment cannot be accepted morally, yet many Catholics disagree, or, at best, give views conflicting with the Church equal respect. Think about many Catholics’ recent reactions to Church positions on immigration, international issues, certain personal behavior and climate change.
The Church, which speaks through the pope and bishops, is solemnly obliged to apply the Gospel to questions of life. The ancient Catholic tradition is that the Holy Spirit guides them in fulfilling this obligation. Being a Catholic, frankly, means accepting this notion.
Also, behind Church teaching is a great reservoir of experience, of awareness and consideration of every angle, and of attention first and only to the Gospel.
Many issues, often complex, confront people, whatever the moment. Catholics have the benefit of divinely inspired guidance at their disposal. It is an advantage. Ignoring it, or worse, rebutting it, is so sad.
