Author expresses his heart-felt sense of gratitude to Prof. S.P. Misra of Arizona University, U.S.A.; Mr. Dinesh Dubey, Political Advisor, American embassy in India; Mr. Prashant Misra, Political Editor, Dainik Jagran group, New Delhi and Prof. B.K. Tewari of Lucknow University.
American religiosity is an empirically verifiable phenomenon. Still, for various reasons, American Political Science has remained religion-blind. Even in thick volumes on American Politics, one fails to find a single paragraph on religious factors, while all other factors are dealt in great detail. Because of this sorry over-sight of American Political Science, a significant aspect of politics has not been explored extensively. This article humbly attempts to study this phenomenon in specific Catholic context. This article starts with ethnic profiling of American Catholics and then focusses on three major issues engaging American Catholic politics. Historically, Catholics considered parochial education to be the most important one. Welfare or charity has been the next most important public concern of American Catholics. In fact, history of American welfare has been almost coterminous with Catholic charity at least from Now Deal decade of 1930s. Catholic intervention in welfare policies of American Government has been systematic, sustained and substantial. It is now quite clear that as Twenty-first century has opened, American Catholics have won decisive victories over these two main issues of their prime concern-i.e. parochial education and public welfare. The battle over third issue--broadly categorized as ‘life issue’ is bitterest one and is still inconclusive. The life issue has created acute contradiction in both--the Republican and Democrat camps. This has become the archetypal ‘conversion issue’ of American politics. After discussing these issues, this article summarily deals with the identity of American Catholics which is unmistakably conservative, ecclesiastical and authoritarian, but progressive on economic issues and pacifist in international relations.
