Whatever happened to the great American principle of the separation of church and state? Remember Rick Santorum who said during the Republican primaries that a John F. Kennedy 1960 speech "made me want to throw up"? Santorum was two years old when Kennedy made that speech.  Probably most people don't even know what JFK actually said.  At the time, many Americans, mostly Protestants (including Rev. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale), were petrified that a Catholic president would allow the Pope to dictate American policies and laws based on Catholic religious doctrines.  Kennedy's speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association was specifically intended to allay those fears. He said, "I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the President how to act and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote."  Fast forward to 2012.  Now we have a devout Catholic Vice Presidential candidate who says, "The work I do as a Catholic holding office conforms to the social doctrine" of his church. Meaning he is against gays, women's health rights, contraception, abortion even in the case of rape or incest and anything else the Catholic Church tells him to be against.  He justifies his budget by saying "The Holy Father, Pope Benedict" is against governments, communities and individuals running up high debt levels.  Maybe Paul Ryan should read Kennedy's speech and the Holy Father should keep his papal nose out of American politics.