Catholic View of J.F.K.

Has John Fitzgerald Kennedy lived up to the hopes of fellow Catholics during his first year as President? A heavily hedged yes is the answer of the weighty Jesuit magazine America (circ. 53,573). President Kennedy has conducted himself, wrote Father Thurston Davis, S.J., America's editor in chief, "more or less as almost any Catholic President might have been expected to conduct himself in a land largely dominated by a strong residual Protestant tradition."

Graham Is Golden. U.S. Catholics.

Father Davis said, asked of Kennedy only that he work hard at the presidency--"and he has certainly not disappointed anyone in this respect." They knew well that "for understandable political reasons" Kennedy would not emphasize his Catholicism, and indeed he has not. A photograph of the President with a cardinal "would cost Mr. Kennedy 10,000 votes in the Bible belt in 1964." whereas pictures of him with Billy Graham "are pure 14-carat gold, to be laid away at five percent interest till the day of reckoning in 1964." This kind of poll-watching calculation. Father Davis argues, may not be very courageous, but Catholics generally "are not troubled" by the President's careful stepping across "so many fragile Protestant eggs."

What does irk them is Kennedy's firm opposition to federal aid for private and church-run schools. Most Catholics feel that Kennedy's refusal to support federal aid for private schools places "harsh economic sanctions upon millions of parents who, in the exercise of their religious liberty, choose to educate their children in parochial schools . . ." Catholics, concludes Father Davis, can understand why Kennedy might not show up to review a St. Patrick's Day parade, but they cannot understand and countenance "a positive act of discrimination."

"Persecution Complex." Widely reprinted. America's knuckle-rapping editorial criticism of the President brought some Protestants to Kennedy's defense. Said Dr. E. S. James of Dallas, editor of the Baptist Standard: "I have every confidence in his sincerity, but I am annoyed with the Catholic hierarchy for the pressure it has exerted on him on behalf of federal aid to parochial education." Dr. Emanuel Carlson, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, suggested that America displayed a "persecution complex" on the subject of parochial schools.

Some Catholics seemed to agree. "The America editorial." said one priest in San Francisco, "sounds like the little boy who didn't get his way, so he says, 'Now you must do this for me.' The sole objection advanced only serves to emphasize what a 'good Catholic' Kennedy is, for the merits of the Catholic school claims for public assistance are not recognized by a large segment of the Catholic public." Historian Edward Gargan, of Chicago's Loyola University, dismissed school aid as "an ephemeral issue." Said he: "To many Catholics, the question of federal aid is a minor issue com pared to the great questions of medical aid for the aged or atomic warfare. Most Catholics, like people of conscience generally, want the President to concentrate on these great issues."

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