Why was it a big deal that JFK was a Catholic when he was elected US President?
Josh Urich
Answered Nov 7, 2014
Because the United States, as a nation, has had a profoundly anti-Catholic vein since the colonial period. English settlers were terrified that the Spanish or French Catholics would get a foothold in the Northeast. Of course there were political and economic reasons for this anxiety in addition to religious reasons. It's hard, however, it understate just how much the English Protestants detested the Catholics. Many Protestants associated the Catholics with devil worship, with heresy, with all things vile and untrustworthy.
In the 19th century, anti-Catholicism became tied to anti-immigration sentiments among both the American elite and American lower classes. Catholicism became tied to European immigrants (Irish and then Italian) who competed with "native" Americans––a term they ironically used to describe themselves––for jobs. These Catholic immigrants had different customs than their Protestant "native" neighbors, customs that the Protestant disapproved of; among these, drinking was worst. There was also a persistent and palpable fear that Catholics couldn't be trusted because of their allegiance to Rome. These fears carried on in America through the 1950s.
https://www.quora.com/Why-was-it-a-big-deal-that-JFK-was-a-Catholic-when-he-was-elected-US-President
