Word: popes
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Along the way to the nomination, Kennedy was in constant skirmishes with the fundamentalists and some New York ecclesiastical powers who suspected that the Pope was even then packing his bags. Behind closed doors in Washington's Mayflower Hotel, the eminent Dr. Norman Vincent Peale told 150 clergymen formed into the Citizens for Religious Freedom: "Our American culture is at stake. I don't say it won't survive, but it won't be what it was." Finally, Kennedy had to meet those preachers down in Houston, who asked him to drop by to explain...
After he had won the nomination, Kennedy was still concerned that people finally would vote against the Pope and him in the election. In New York City one day he was riding down Fifth Avenue in a limousine, chatting amiably about the political struggle. As the limousine rolled past St. Patrick's Cathedral, Kennedy was suddenly seized by the inner imp. He leaned forward and with a grin saluted the cathedral's spires. Just as suddenly he realized his peril and barked: "That's off the record." J.F.K. allowed Cardinal Cushing to come down from Boston...
...even after Kennedy's death there were recurrent jitters about the Vatican. Lyndon Johnson approached Pope Paul VI as though he were a Republican. In 1965 the President went to the Waldorf Astoria to pay a brief call on the visitor from Rome. There is no record of L.B.J.'s asking the Pope to the ranch for barbecue, one of few celebrities so snubbed...
American non-Catholics last week seemed almost as happy as Catholics to have the Pope in their midst. No old sectarian angers darkened the pageant. Whatever doctrinal reservations may remain about the Pope of Rome lay quiet, at least for the moment...
...spectacle was a startling confirmation of the substantial changes that have occurred in American attitudes toward the Roman Catholic Church and the papacy. One has only to imagine the nation's furious reception if Pope Pius XII had appeared in America 30 years ago: Congressmen would have introduced resolutions denouncing the visit; angry pickets would have greeted the Pontiff at every stop. It would have seemed un thinkable to invite him to the White House...