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Santorum's Speech: Capturing the Kennedy Mystique, Correcting the Kennedy Mistake
Catholic Online ^ | 9/12/10 | Deacon Keith Fournier

Posted on 09/12/2010 6:27:54 PM PDT by tcg

...Senator Santorum's speech is a breath of fresh air. In an age of political sound bites and jingoism, he offers intelligent and impassioned reflection. This is a statesman.

I vividly remember the fateful day when President Kennedy was assassinated. I was traumatized. I kept a scrapbook in which I collected newspaper articles, and photos concerning it. My mother kept it for me. She also gave me a card made up marking the day of his funeral with a prayer for the repose of his soul. She wrapped it in "saran wrap" and I have it to this day. There certainly was, and to some degree still is, a "Kennedy Mystique".

It is clear that our Nations first Catholic President made a tragic error in the Houston speech. That error unleashed a torrent of tragic results. In Senator Santorum's words, "Fifty years ago this Sunday JFK delivered a speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association to dispel suspicions about the role the papacy might play in the government of this country under his administration. Let's make no mistake about it -- Kennedy was addressing a real issue at the time. Prejudice against Catholics threatened to cost him the election. But on that day, Kennedy chose not just to dispel fear, he chose to expel faith."

John F. Kennedy also laid the groundwork for the advance of what the venerable John Paul II rightly called the "Culture of Death." He gave cover to countless Catholic politicians to be morally incoherent. Senator Rick Santorum's speech in Houston is the desperately needed corrective that has been long overdue. Having come to know this gifted and good man, I am convinced he is recapturing the Kennedy Mystique while correcting the Kennedy Mistake...

(Excerpt) Read more at catholic.org ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: abortion; catholic; president; santorum
September 12, 2010 marked the fiftieth anniversary of one of the defining political speeches of the last 100 years. It was the address given by Senator John F. Kennedy to the Houston Ministerial alliance. In that speech he unleashed a horrid mistake. He laid out an approach to the role of religious faith which resulted in "privatizing" the truths informed by faith. Senator Rick Santorum exposed the Kennedy mistake and offered another model of Catholic political participation.
1 posted on 09/12/2010 6:27:57 PM PDT by tcg
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To: tcg

Read later


2 posted on 09/12/2010 6:32:27 PM PDT by ElayneJ (ui)
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To: tcg

The author makes one mistake. He says that we are our brother’s keeper. I don’t think we are. When Cain asks God if he was his brother’s keeper God never says yes or no. God tells Cain that his brother’s murder must be avenged. It is Biblical that those in authority have special responsibilities, but each man must look after his own soul.


3 posted on 09/12/2010 6:41:39 PM PDT by AceMineral (Clam down!)
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To: tcg

Santorum actively supported the pro-abortion Arlen Specter over the anti-abortion Pat Toomey. I see no mention of that in this article.


4 posted on 09/12/2010 6:42:05 PM PDT by smoothsailing
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To: smoothsailing
Rick Santorum is a useless sellout. He may be "personally prolife" but he has a tin ear when it comes to political integrity. A loser who lost-- gee whaddasuprise.

Now he is just a pathetic hanger-on with has-beens like Bill Bennet and Co.

5 posted on 09/12/2010 6:52:59 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: tcg

Santorum can go pound sand. He’s the fallback guy for the socons in case Huckster doesn’t make it.


6 posted on 09/12/2010 6:56:39 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist (Mexico is the U.S. version of Hamas)
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To: hinckley buzzard

Yep, it’s a race to the finish between him and Newtie to see who is the biggest yesteryear gasbag.


7 posted on 09/12/2010 7:52:36 PM PDT by smoothsailing
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To: hinckley buzzard

There must have been a personality problem there as the PA people beat him by a large margin.


8 posted on 09/12/2010 9:19:58 PM PDT by Theodore R. (Rush was right when he said America may survive Obama but not the Obama supporters.)
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To: hinckley buzzard

I feel sorry for people who “fell” for that rotund Bill Bennett. Even Jesse Helms tried to get him once to run for the other NC Senate seat, but Bennett said no. That was before he came out as a neo-con.


9 posted on 09/12/2010 9:23:29 PM PDT by Theodore R. (Rush was right when he said America may survive Obama but not the Obama supporters.)
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To: tcg

For all of you who still hate Santorum, for one mistake (and probaly forced by the GOP elites to do it), we lost a great guy in Santorum. Yes, we punished him soundly, threw him out on his ear, but the biggest loser has been ourselves. The so-called ‘democrat conservative’ who won against Santorum has voted with the leftists has done a lot of damage to our country.

We need to take a better political tack than just letting the left win the seats of people we disagree with. How stupid can we get? It would’ve been better to voice our complaints and still support a candidate that was 100% pro-life, pro-family, and voted right about as much as anybody in the Senate. Instead, we let our anger carry the day and look what we have instead?! How smart was that?


10 posted on 09/13/2010 12:15:41 AM PDT by Shery (in APO Land)
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To: hinckley buzzard

“Now he is just a pathetic hanger-on with has-beens...”

Yes...”has-beens” like Greta and FNC.

I’m not sticking up for him, but he’s hardly in bed with has-beens.


11 posted on 09/13/2010 12:32:13 AM PDT by dixiechick2000 (Remember November...I can see it from my house!)
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To: Shery

Bumping an excellent and thoughtful reply.

He was dislodged from his Senatorial position in 2006. There were other good people who lost that year. It was the pace car lap for 2008.


12 posted on 09/13/2010 12:35:25 AM PDT by dixiechick2000 (Remember November...I can see it from my house!)
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To: Shery
It wasn't just the Specter thing, he did the $100,00.00 cyber-school caper where he got a local PA school district to pay for his kids cyber-school using an address for his niece as his residence while he lived in a fancy-schmancy school district in Leesburg Va., some people just don't like slimy beltway tricks so they didn't vote for him. He withdrew his kids but Penn Hills had to go to court to get the money back

Not saying that worked out good for us but the reasons were there.

13 posted on 09/13/2010 12:51:32 AM PDT by this_ol_patriot
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