Dead on the money Lurk. The prevailing feeling from quite a few voters in the run up to the primaries and general was that if JFK won the White House.....the Pope would be then calling the shots on everything for at least 4 years. Dumb and wrong I agree, but that is how it was.
This whole string is based on a misunderstanding. JFK had no “church” to separate from the state. He was a Catholic in name only. He was not a papist lackey but instead a typical amoral liberal secularist who worshiped power more than God.
JFK spent more time cheating on his wife than observing his faith. He jeopardized the security of his nation by consorting with a gangster moll and East German spy. Most recently, we learned that he took advantage of a 19-year old intern and forced her to perform oral sex on an aide.