Why no more Catholics in the White House?

[Keystone Phil]

Palin is Catholic.

She left the Church.

From what I understand you can't leave unless you're excommunicated.

Eh...no, not really. From what I've been told, you can formally renounce your faith the Cardinal in your archdiocese can decide to accept or reject your desire to leave. It's usually a ridiculously long, complicated effort which ends up being a complete waste of time. The Cardinal usually doesn't bother to accept your renouncing of faith.

Either way, it's absolutely ridiculous to think that she is still a Roman Catholic just because the Church says so. She clearly practices another faith and displayed a desire to leave the Catholic Church. I can understand not always accepting the renouncing of faith by younger, rebelious people but that's not always the reason for people wanting to leave.

[Barack Hussian YO MAMA!!!!]

Palin is Catholic.

OMG secret catholic!!!! manchurican candidate, she wants to set up a puppet govenment
for the Vatican.

Glad to see you fit the perfect match for about every Bostonian I've ever known.

ohhh yeaahzzzz well screw you and your stupid Devil Rays!!!!

[??????????]

Joe Biden is a Catholic.

[Barack Hussian YO MAMA!!!!]

something to think about I don't think America has ever had an Italian catholic president

Uh...something you have to "think" about? Our only Catholic President was John F. Kennedy - obviously an Irish Catholic. I think that answers it

yeah something I have to think about I'm trying to say we have never had an Italian president Obviously an Irish catholic, I'm not sure what you meant by that Phil are you trying to say that all Irish catholics are lazy drunk potato farmers , I get it Phil..... its typical I thought you where better then that.     

You need to apologize dude that was totally  Un- called for.

[HardRCafé]

Joe Biden is a Catholic.

Ha!  Good one.

[Keystone Phil]

Obviously an Irish catholic, I'm not sure what you meant by that Phil are you trying to say that all Irish catholics are lazy drunk potato farmers , I get it Phil..... its typical I thought you where better then that.     

You need to apologize dude that was totally  Un- called for.

LOL

Wow. Most. Outrageous. Post. Ever.

I said he's obviously Irish Catholic because everyone knows that "Kennedy" is an Irish name and that it has been drilled into our head that the Kennedy's are an Irish Catholic family.

Wow.

[Smash255]

Quick Question: What party will the next Catholic nominee likely be?

Probably Democrat.  The heaviest concentration of Catholics are in the northeast, where  the GOP is basically extinct.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Palin is Catholic.

Not anymore.

Wait, Jindal is Catholic? My uncle told me he was Hindu.

Yeah, I have a feeling that if Jindal runs

Jindal = Hindu might be like Obama = Muslim

At least Jindal was Hindu at one point, and Hindus aren't held as in low regard as Muslims now. It's moot though, because Jindal is NOT running in 2012, bank it. (Why? Please note when the next Louisiana gubernatorial election takes place.)

[pragmatic liberal]

Joe Biden is a Catholic.

Ha!  Good one.

If I'm not mistaken, Biden would be the first Catholic VICE-president.

Since JFK, there have been 6 Catholic VP nominees:

1964: William Miller (R)
1968: Ed Muskie (D)
1972: Tom Eagleton (D) -- removed from ticket
1972: Sargent Shriver (D)
1984: Geraldine Ferraro (D)
2008: Joe Biden

[Barack Hussian YO MAMA!!!!]

Obviously an Irish catholic, I'm not sure what you meant by that Phil are you trying to say that all Irish catholics are lazy drunk potato farmers , I get it Phil..... its typical I thought you where better then that.     

You need to apologize dude that was totally  Un- called for.

LOL

Wow. Most. Outrageous. Post. Ever.

I said he's obviously Irish Catholic because everyone knows that "Kennedy" is an Irish name and that it has been drilled into our head that the Kennedy's are an Irish Catholic family.

Wow.

phil I hope you realize that was just a joke I meant no harm by it, I just have a sarcastic sense of humor sometimes it doesn't always translate on the internet.

[Keystone Phil]

Obviously an Irish catholic, I'm not sure what you meant by that Phil are you trying to say that all Irish catholics are lazy drunk potato farmers , I get it Phil..... its typical I thought you where better then that.     

You need to apologize dude that was totally  Un- called for.

LOL

Wow. Most. Outrageous. Post. Ever.

I said he's obviously Irish Catholic because everyone knows that "Kennedy" is an Irish name and that it has been drilled into our head that the Kennedy's are an Irish Catholic family.

Wow.

phil I hope you realize that was just a joke I meant no harm by it, I just have a sarcastic sense of humor sometimes it doesn't always translate on the internet.

Haha, good. I never know with some people...

[Workers' Friend]

Speaking of Italians, I am 1/4 Italian, maybe If I ever become President, I'll be the 1st.

I'm 100% Italian (by heritage) but, lucky for you, I don't plan on running for President. 

Yay, even though I am Protestant, At least Italian descent will have SOME presence in the President if I am elected.

[Cubby]

Joe Biden is a Catholic.

Ha!  Good one.

Just because someone doesn't follow or believe in every single rule of a church, doesn't mean they aren't a member. I considered myself a Catholic for a long time after I stopped going on Sundays.

[ag]

Actually, it's not just Catholic. Unless I am mistaken, in all of recorded history there've only been 4 major party nominees who weren't, at least nominally, protestant (3 of them Catholic), and only one of them (Catholic) was ever elected president.

[Workers' Friend]

Actually, it's not just Catholic. Unless I am mistaken, in all of recorded history there've only been 4 major party nominees who weren't, at least nominally, protestant (3 of them Catholic), and only one of them (Catholic) was ever elected president.

Smith, Kennedy, and Kerry were Catholic. Dukakis was a Greek Orthodox. All 4 Democrats.

[Brandon H]

Catholics use to all register Democrat, but that was before the Democrats became the liberal party. I don't know about the north, but in the South, many Catholics are registered Democrat but vote Republican.

[Sensei]

Palin is Catholic.

She left the Church.

From what I understand you can't leave unless you're excommunicated.

how does one go about doing that anyway?

[Keystone Phil]

Palin is Catholic.

She left the Church.

From what I understand you can't leave unless you're excommunicated.

how does one go about doing that anyway?

Eh, you have to do a bunch of inappropriate things and get noticed doing them. 

[Smash255]

Catholics use to all register Democrat, but that was before the Democrats became the liberal party. I don't know about the north, but in the South, many Catholics are registered Democrat but vote Republican.

The biggest reason many of the suburbs in the northeast have gone from Republican to Democratic is a result of the rightward movement in the Republican Party which has resulted in middle class suburban Catholics becoming more and more Democratic.

[ag]

Palin is Catholic.

She left the Church.

From what I understand you can't leave unless you're excommunicated.

how does one go about doing that anyway?

Actually, in Spain many people are petitioning (and even suing) their dioceses to "annul" their baptisms and purge them from baptismal registries (some Spaniards - more than merely a few - consider the Church to be a highly disreputable organization, association with which harms their reputation in their own eyes). In some places, if I am not mistaken, the local bishops have all but given up and have issued some sort of letters confirming the "purge", but the bulk of the dioceses, not entirely unreasonably, consider the issue mildly ridiculous: baptism registry simply records the undisputed fact that your parents brought you to church and had the priest sprinkle some water on you: you can't "unsprinkle" it any more than you can have yourself "uncircumcized". In any case, if you don't take a communion, you aren't an active member of the Church, are you?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Palin is Catholic.

She left the Church.

From what I understand you can't leave unless you're excommunicated.

how does one go about doing that anyway?

Eh, you have to do a bunch of inappropriate things and get noticed doing them. 

Actually there are actions that the RCC considers to cause a sort of automatic excommunication, one being "apostasy, heresy, and schism", which basically just means renouncing the authority of the Pope or "infallible" Catholic doctrine. Which Palin and every other Catholic-turned-Protestant has done. So if you no longer consider yourself Catholic and refuse to practice or recognize Catholic doctrine and the Pope's authority, you've basically excommunicated yourself (making the practice ag speaks of kind of pointless, but these are people clearly just trying to make a political statement.)

[Barack Hussian YO MAMA!!!!]

Catholics use to all register Democrat, but that was before the Democrats became the liberal party. I don't know about the north, but in the South, many Catholics are registered Democrat but vote Republican.

i Could be wrong but I think that might also be the case in Massachusetts, hence
the whole Reagan democrats thing. A term I am sick of hearing. 

[Keystone Phil]

Palin is Catholic.

She left the Church.

From what I understand you can't leave unless you're excommunicated.

how does one go about doing that anyway?

Eh, you have to do a bunch of inappropriate things and get noticed doing them. 

Actually there are actions that the RCC considers to cause a sort of automatic excommunication, one being "apostasy, heresy, and schism", which basically just means renouncing the authority of the Pope or "infallible" Catholic doctrine. Which Palin and every other Catholic-turned-Protestant has done. So if you no longer consider yourself Catholic and refuse to practice or recognize Catholic doctrine and the Pope's authority, you've basically excommunicated yourself (making the practice ag speaks of kind of pointless, but these are people clearly just trying to make a political statement.)

Well, I guess technically you have excommunicated yourself but some people within the Church leadership will still say that you a member of the Church until you are officially excommunicated.

[12th Doctor]

Palin is Catholic.

She left the Church.

From what I understand you can't leave unless you're excommunicated.

how does one go about doing that anyway?

Eh, you have to do a bunch of inappropriate things and get noticed doing them. 

Actually there are actions that the RCC considers to cause a sort of automatic excommunication, one being "apostasy, heresy, and schism", which basically just means renouncing the authority of the Pope or "infallible" Catholic doctrine. Which Palin and every other Catholic-turned-Protestant has done. So if you no longer consider yourself Catholic and refuse to practice or recognize Catholic doctrine and the Pope's authority, you've basically excommunicated yourself (making the practice ag speaks of kind of pointless, but these are people clearly just trying to make a political statement.)

Well, I guess technically you have excommunicated yourself but some people within the Church leadership will still say that you a member of the Church until you are officially excommunicated.

You are both correct.

[Badlands17]

I think it's cause even though those with English, Scottish and "American" ancestry make up just under 50% of the population, all presidents since Kennedy had their ancestors mainly from the UK. Hell, I can't even think of a majority German president since Eisenhower (Nixon was only one-fourth).