ISSUES: Church & State (Contd.)

• Share

Jack Kennedy's forthright statements of his views on church-state relationships have been aimed at Protestants who are wary about Vatican control over a Roman Catholic President of the U.S. But they have had an important effect on U.S. Catholicism as well. Many a Catholic clergyman and layman has been moved to think through his own views, with the result that the 1960 campaign has brought the clearest definition of American Catholic church-state beliefs in the history of the U.S. Catholic Church.

Last fortnight the Rev. Gustave Weigel, a distinguished Jesuit theologian, backed Kennedy's interpretations in a formal statement (TIME, Oct. 10). Last week a group of 169 prominent Catholic laymen —including such ardent Democrats as Minnesota's Senator Eugene McCarthy and Connecticut's Senator Tom Dodd, and such solid Nixon Republicans as former Ambassador Clare Boothe Luce and Professor Francis G. Wilson of the University of Illinois —published a landmark "statement of religious liberty." The statement not only backed Kennedy's position that his religion could and would not compromise his actions as President, but went beyond Kennedy, and Father Weigel, in flatly deploring the denial of religious freedom "in countries where Catholics constitute a majority—even an overwhelming majority." Other key points:

¶ "We believe in the freedom of the religious conscience and in the Catholic's obligation to guarantee full freedom of belief and worship as a civil right . . . Catholics have a special duty to work for the realization of the principle of freedom of religion in every nation, whether they are a minority or a majority."

¶ "We believe constitutional separation of church and state offers the best guarantee both of religious freedom and of civic peace. The principle of separation is part of our American heritage."

¶ "We believe that among the fundamentals of religious liberty are the freedom of a church to teach its members and the freedom of its members to accept the teachings of their church."

¶ "In his public acts as they affect the whole community the Catholic is bound in conscience to promote the common good and to avoid any seeking of a merely sectarian advantage. He is bound also to recognize the proper scope or independence of the political order."