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IN 1960, JOHN F. KENNEDY became the second Roman Catholic to run for president of the United States. As a Catholic, he was repeatedly called upon to clarify his positions on church–state relations and on his possible relationship with the Vatican if he were elected. Speaking to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on September 12, he strongly reiterated his position on church– state separation, and he asserted that if ever his duties as president should conflict with his religious obligations as a Catholic, he would resign the presidency.1 Thus, Kennedy was forced, by virtue of his religious affiliation, to defend his candidacy against a charge of divided loyalty. Yet despite his repeated and eloquent statements in this regard, the religious issue was an important determinant of the vote in the presidential election of 1960.2 In 2004, another senator from Massachusetts with the initials JFK was the Democratic nominee for president. Like Kennedy, John Kerry was, and remains, a Catholic. Forty-four years after Kennedy’s decision to run for the presidency, few Americans would pose the question of divided loyalty to a Catholic candidate for president. However, Kerry’s Catholicism posed a political dilemma for the Catholic hierarchy in the United States and the Vatican. As a U.S. senator , Kerry supported both legal abortion and stem cell medical research, both of which were condemned by the Vatican.3 In November 2003, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) organized a task force to consider how the American Church should treat Catholic political leaders who seek to make a distinction between their personal convictions and their responsibilities as public officials. Although the task force, headed by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, did not make specific recommendations, it did consider penalties that included withholding Holy Communion as well as the extreme penalty of excommunication. Moreover, several American bishops announced that they would withhold the Eucharist from Senator Kerry. Others 69 The American Church: Of Being Catholic and American Ted G. Jelen Chapter 4 70 The Challenge of Secularization suggested that Kerry refrain from taking Communion, because his public acts were in violation of the Vatican’s teaching.4 Such changes in Catholic politics provide an intriguing illustration of the role of the Catholic Church in American politics. The American Church represents a fascinating example of religious politics on a national and global scale. As the representative of the Vatican hierarchy in a nation in which individual liberty is a core value, and in which religious freedom is particularly prized, the American Church is a paradigm case study of the manner in which the obligations of citizenship and discipleship may interact and conflict. American Catholics represent a minority presence in two senses. Roman Catholics are a large and growing minority of the U.S. population. Thus, they have never been in a position of cultural or political dominance. Moreover, American Catholics are a small minority within the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, and they hold correspondingly limited power within the Vatican’s hierarchy . Nevertheless, American Catholics may illustrate in stark terms the manner in which Catholics can retain authentic Christianity in a modern, secular , and pluralistic society. Alternatively, American Catholics have tested the boundaries of Catholic orthodoxy, and they may have set part of the agenda for the Vatican for the past quarter century. As a force in American politics, the Catholic Church has had an ambiguous legacy. The religious pluralism and liberal individualism that characterize the United States pose unique challenges for the American Church.5 Overview Although not the majority religion, Catholicism is the largest single religious denomination in the United States. The proportion of Roman Catholics among the U.S. population grew steadily throughout the twentieth century; it currently comprises about 25 percent of the population. Most American Catholics are the descendants of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, although, at the end of the twentieth century, Hispanics were the largest single ethnic group. Indeed, Hispanics have accounted for much of the growth of the Catholic population since 1970.6 Geographically, American Catholics are concentrated in the Northeast, with additional concentrations in the urban areas of the Great Lakes region (Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Buffalo) and in the areas of the southwest adjacent to Mexico. In absolute terms, Roman Catholics are least numerous in the Southeast and Mountain West, although the Catholic population is growing most rapidly in these areas. Although the American Catholic population is largely comprised of relatively recent immigrants and their descendants, their...

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