'You're also a Catholic, are you not?' This non sequitur began a line of questioning at the House Oversight Committee on 15 January 2025 from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) to the former head of the Social Security Commission and current candidate for Democratic National Committee chair, Martin O'Malley. After acknowledging his Catholic beliefs, O'Malley was asked 'Do you serve God or do you serve the Democrat party?,' a subject being asked based on dogmatic differences between the Catholic Church's position on access to abortions and that of the Democratic Party. Not even the objections of the ranking Democrat on the Committee -- and fellow Catholic -- could derail the exchange. The back and forth also featured O'Malley stating that as a political matter, he found himself aligned with the pro-choice camp, at which point Greene told him that his answer amounted to 'letting God know' his position and suggested that he talk to God more because his pro-choice stance was wrong.
The whole exchange lasted under two minutes, and yet it testifies to serious cleavages in the long and contentious history of religion's place in US politics. For one, the US tradition of an official division between church and state essentially crumbles when a sitting member of Congress, acting in their official capacity, singles out an American citizen and pushes them to engage in a religious practice. Further, it is nigh-on-impossible to imagine this same advice -- of stricter adherence to hardline religious dogma -- being given to a Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, or Sikh public servant.
Setting all the hypocrisy aside, this episode also testifies as to just how different American politics has become specifically for liberal Catholics seeking public office. In fact, the implication that O'Malley should defer to Catholic doctrine more when determining his political positions stands in complete contradiction to centuries of political rhetoric about the place of Catholics and Catholicism in American political life. While there are many examples, here are two historical time periods that demonstrate how liberal Catholic politicians have gone from being asked to suppress their faith as a matter of patriotism to being prompted by a sitting member of Congress to have their politicial decisions fall in line with the Catholic doctrine.
Just a century ago, Catholics of all stripes found themselves accused of being puppets of the papacy, serving "Rome" and not the US. Below are just a small number of political cartoons literally and metaphorically illustrating this point. Fundamentally, mainstream Protestant-informed US politics voiced the opinion that the Catholic Church's doctrine was alien and wrong, and that Catholics holding public office were a threat to democratic values.
In the years after World War II, the uneasiness around Catholics holding public office had, to some extent, dissipated -- Catholics had won elections and served local constituents. That said, the same fears around Rome Rule remained when it came to Catholics seeking national office. In fact, Greene's question 'who do you serve' is an echo of that same question being asked of then presidential candidate John F. Kennedy during his 1960 election campaign. The fear of Kennedy's Catholicism influencing his political decision-making, and the outright objection that it should, became so intense that he gathered Baptist pastors for a live broadcast to make a definitive statement on the issue.
As can be heard in this clip, Kennedy declared:
Contrary to common newspaper usage, I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for President who happens also to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my church on public matters, and the church does not speak for me.
Whatever issue may come before me as president -- on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling or any other subject -- I will make my decision in accordance with these views, in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressures or dictates.
The speech -- which also includes Kennedy stating his belief that in an ideal America 'no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source' -- marked a significant moment in Kennedy's candidacy and in the country's perspective on Catholics in public office.
With Rep. Greene's questioning of O'Malley and the lack of significant denunciation within and without Congress for her question, 'who do you serve?,' it appears that the religio-political path that American Catholics have arduously navigated has changed course, leaving many unsure of their footing yet again...
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