Yes to both, probably, and that will be his downfall.
Mean time, he has made it quite clear that he is no Jack Kennedy. You will remember (if you are, like, 100 years old) that Jack Kennedy was asked if he was going to be all Catholicy and stuff if he won the election to the presidency, and he said “I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish, where no public official either requests or accept instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source…” etc. etc.
Santorum has addressed the same issue. He says: “Ultimately Kennedy’s attempt to reassure Protestants that the Catholic Church would not control the government and suborn its independence advanced a philosophy of strict separation that would create a purely secular public square cleansed of all religious wisdom and the voice of religious people of all faiths. He laid the foundation for attacks on religious freedom and freedom of speech by the secular left and its political arms like the ACLU and the People for the American Way.”
So, Santorum is explicitly against the Constitution of the United States of America on this. I wonder if he also favors gun control?
How will this play out in the primary process? The Gallup organization has measured one important factor: Santorum’s Catholicness does not impress Republican Catholics. They hold him in no more favor than they hold any of the other candidates.
Truth Out continues and expands on this discussion.
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Rick Santorum is definitely excessively Catholic though. I bet he’s a total painslut. Hairshirt and everything.
Grammar Police alert: The word ‘to’ is used incorrectly twice in this entry’s title. You meant ‘too.’ I normally try to keep from being a pedantic ass and stay away from calling out grammar and spelling mistakes on the net. But in this case, it tripped me up for a minute because it confounds the meaning.
That’s all. 😉 Love your posts Greg. Keep ’em comin’.
The Constitution is ignored or revered at the convenience of the one running for office, in that particular party.
Santorum is more of a Vatican Catholic than a pragmatic American Catholic, in his rhetoric. Which, naturally he does not listen to himself.
In March of last year the Boston Globe quoted Rick Santorum telling a group of right-wing Catholics that he was “frankly appalled” that America’s first Catholic president, John F. Kennedy, once said “I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.” In characterization, Santorum went further by saying “That was a radical statement,” and did “great damage.” And Santorum concluded, “We’re seeing how Catholic politicians, following the first Catholic president, have followed his lead, and have divorced faith not just from the public square, but from their own decision-making process.”
Santorum may insist that he is a better Catholic then I am and a better man to be president than John F. Kennedy, but just as freely I view him as a religious bigot that neither speaks for me in matters or conscience nor political affairs. And further, were he to gain the power of the presidency by successfully painting the people’s consideration with his brand of religious fanaticism, it would do “great damage” to our land.
And frankly, in words of comparative disparagement that Lloyd Bentsen directed at Dan Quayle in their 1988 vice-presidential debate, “Rick Santorum, you’re no John F. Kennedy.”