Abstract

The essay deals with the speech delivered by J.F. Kennedy to an audience of Protestant ministers at the Greater House Ministerial Association two months before his election to the White House. In his speech, J.F. Kennedy strongly maintained the autonomy of politics from religion and asserted that he was a «democratic» candidate and not a «Catholic» one. The Church of Rome, in turn, severely criticized J. F. Kennedy's claims by means of the Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput who, in a speech given in Houston on March 1st, 2010, accused J. F. Kennedy of oversecularizing the Presidency of the United States.