The Catholic Role in the American Founding, by Phil Lawler

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture, March 28, 2025

 Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org.

Picture a medieval city in Europe, with the cathedral at its center, the people gathered outside on the piazza. Or think of ancient Rome, where leaders gathered at the Forum to discuss public affairs or offer sacrifices to their gods. In early New England villages, the church on the town green also served as the meetinghouse. In these communities, political debates were never far removed from religious principles.

Against that background, the late Rev. Richard John Neuhaus lamented, in his 1984 book, The Naked Public Square, that in contemporary America, religious beliefs were unwelcome in the discussion of public affairs. The secular resistance to religious influences, he argued, was a serious flaw in the American political system. But it was also a challenge to believers: an opportunity to re-introduce that crucial missing element. …