When Roger B Taney, the first Catholic in United States history to assume a Cabinet position, became attorney general in 1831, anti-Catholic bigotry was a prominent feature of American politics — manifest in the worry that “papists” could not really be loyal to their own country.
That bias has since faded, the heaviest blow against it coming when John F Kennedy, America’s first and so far only Catholic president, entered the White House in January 1961. And yet, in American politics, Catholics are still considered a novelty, especially when they rise to high government positions.
