The anti-Catholic bias goes back a long way in American politics.  The Founders of this country justify, in part, in the First Amendment Separation of Church and State on the fear of the Catholic Church, and in particular its Head of State, the Pope.  The Vatican was looked at as an independent entity, with a leader very much like a national head of state, a king or an emperor.

England’s Henry VIII broke from the Catholic Church and set up his own Anglican Church, not only because the Catholic Church would not approve of his marriages, divorces, and beheading of less than favorite wives, but also as a battle for control.  European history is largely about the question as to who would rule the emerging nation states on the continent; the Church or the King?

Thomas Jefferson specifically wrote that a “priest-ridden people” would have difficulty “maintaining a free civil government.”  Jefferson, who wrote his own Bible, considered the Church an institution which was despotic and would unquestionably suppress human liberty.

John Adams, along with Jefferson, the architect of this nation, had a strong anti-Catholic bias.  All one has to do to understand John Adams and his view of Catholicism is to read his 1765 work entitled “A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law.”  Adams also trumpeted the need for religious tolerance.

John Jay was the first Chief Justice of the United States.  He strongly opposed the Catholic Church, especially as it pertained to public life.  He even tried to have the New York Legislature ban Catholics from holding office. At the time, Jews were still not permitted to hold office in most of........

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