The Anti-Catholic Logic Behind the Alito Recording

In 1960, John F. Kennedy became the first Catholic president of the United States. His election proved a watershed moment for Catholics, long accused of being more loyal to the pope than to the American government. Yet, more than 60 years later—and with another self-identified Catholic in the White House, at least for now—many progressives seem possessed by anti-Catholic animus.

In recent “undercover reporting,” a left-wing activistposed as a practicing Catholic to bait Justice Samuel Alito. “I don’t know that we can negotiate with the left in the way that, like, needs to happen for the polarization to end. I think that it’s a matter of, like, winning,” she said. “I think you’re probably right,” Alito replied. “On one side or the other—one side or the other is going to win. I don’t know. I mean, there can be a way of working, a way of living together peacefully, but it’s difficult, you know, because there are differences on fundamental things that really can’t be compromised.”

A predictable media ruckus ensued, but it would be hard to find a person in the United States, religious or otherwise, who wouldn’t agree with Alito’s remarks to some degree. Certainly, the 85 percent of Democratswho believe that abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances would agree. Neither this position nor its opposite suggests a looming theocracy.

The logic behind this exercise in “gotcha” activism echoes anti-Catholic arguments made throughout American history: a Catholic’s beliefs (certain ones, anyway) cannot be separated from his work; therefore, he should not be able to serve in high office. In 2017, California senator Dianne Feinstein told Amy Coney Barrett, during her confirmation hearings for her seat on a U.S. Court of Appeals: “the dogma lives loudly within you.”

What dogma was Feinstein referring to? After all, President Joe Biden and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi claim to be practicing Catholics. Moreover, all five Catholic Supreme Court justices recently ruled that the abortion pill mifepristone could remain available. Perhaps the “dogma” doesn’t live as loudly as some think—or in the way that they think.

This same sort of anti-Catholic hysteria was evident in the online response to Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s commencement speech at Benedictine College in May. You’d think that America was on the cusp of a rolling Catholic tide. If anything, the opposite seems true. Only 23 percent of self-identified Catholics attend Mass every Sunday; another 50 percent report attending seldom or never. The Catholic Church has experienced one of the largest declines in regular attendance of any major American religious group over the past two decades.

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