The ‘religious test’

Many people say that anti-Catholicism passed out of American politics when John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, won the presidency in 1960 despite the religious bias that had been brought against him in the campaign. Well, if anti-Catholicism as a political issue collapsed

Religion in politics

Nov. 6 came and went. Most American Catholics regarded the day as special because of the midterm elections. Few thought of it as an anniversary, but American Catholics alive on Nov. 6, 1928, remember it as the day when Governor Alfred E.

Anti-Catholic politics

I think of John Carroll as the first American Catholic. Born in colonial Maryland, he came from an old Catholic family. His older brother signed the Constitution while his cousin — Charles Carroll of Carrollton (d. 1832) — was the last surviving

Why do so many people hate the Catholic Church?

As the controversy over President Barack Obama administration’s January directive to religious institutions to pay for employees’ contraceptives, sterilizations and abortion-inducing drugs was heating up, Michael Gerson — a conservative columnist frequently friendly to the Church’s views — speculated on the reasoning

Why Catholics can’t be Masons

Centuries-old Catholic concerns about Freemasonry are keen again, thanks to the recent hit movie “National Treasure”(Walt Disney Pictures) and the impending release of “The Solomon Key” [ed. note: renamed “The Lost Symbol”] — a new novel from the author of “The Da