Thomas Jefferson was deeply hostile toward the Catholic Church as an institution. He viewed its doctrines as a distortion of Jesus’s original message, its hierarchy as a threat to republican government, and its historical persecution as a model of tyranny.
Jefferson’s opposition to Catholicism was rooted in three main areas:
Theological disagreements: Jefferson was a Deist who admired Jesus’s moral teachings but rejected core Christian doctrines like the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, and the resurrection. He believed that priests had corrupted Jesus’s simple, ethical message with “mysticisms, fancies and falsehoods,” and he saw the Catholic Church as the original source of these distortions. In his view, reason was the ultimate authority in matters of faith, not church tradition or dogma.
Political beliefs: Jefferson feared the political power of religious institutions and their potential to undermine republican government. He saw the Catholic Church’s hierarchical structure and history of entanglement with monarchies as fundamentally at odds with the principles of self-government and individual liberty. He viewed the historical record of the Church’s persecution as a dangerous example of what happens when religious leaders are given political power.
Animosity toward clergy: Jefferson had a general distrust of the clergy of all denominations, viewing them as a corrupting force motivated by a hunger for power. He saw them as having perverted religion for their own gain. His famous push for the separation of church and state was, in part, a reaction against what he saw as the oppressive influence of religious leaders on government.
Contextualizing Jefferson’s anti-Catholicism
A product of his time: Jefferson’s views were not unique. As a man of the Enlightenment, he shared a common anti-Catholic prejudice with many Protestant intellectuals of the 18th century, who saw Catholicism as authoritarian and irrational.
Support for religious freedom: Despite his personal views, Jefferson was a steadfast advocate for religious freedom for all, including Catholics. In the 1786 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, he specifically wrote that a person’s religious opinions should not “diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities,” and he resisted efforts to amend the bill to exclude certain faiths.
Separation of church and state: Jefferson’s commitment to the separation of church and state was designed to prevent any religious group—including the Catholic Church, which he saw as a historically oppressive force—from gaining a dominant position in government. He believed that true religion flourished best without government interference.
Jefferson was a Deiest, and not Born Agai. But he was still inspired by GOD to write the Decleration.