When Rick Santorum rebuked John F. Kennedy's 1960 speech on religion, he was repeating a common conservative view that the address did more harm than good.

In an interview Sunday with ABC's "This Week," Santorum, a Roman Catholic Republican, said he "almost threw up" when he read the remarks by Kennedy, who told the Greater Houston Ministerial Association: "I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute."

Santorum, competing for conservative votes in a close GOP presidential contest with Mitt Romney, argued that more religion was needed in American public life.

"The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country," Santorum said.

Kennedy gave the speech to the mostly Baptist Texas pastors at a time when Protestants openly wondered whether a Catholic U.S. president would take orders from the pope. In what would become a model for generations of American Catholic politicians, Kennedy insisted his policies would be based on his conscience, not church teaching.

"I believe in a president whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation, or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office," Kennedy said, just weeks before the general election. "I do not speak for my church on public matters, and the church does not speak for me."

The address was widely considered an eloquent repudiation of bias and a landmark of American rhetoric. Kennedy went on to become the first Catholic U.S. president.

Yet, as years passed, the church and society underwent changes that led many Catholics and conservative Christians to conclude they were being pushed from public life. For them, the speech took on new meaning.

The U.S. Supreme Court ended sectarian prayer in public schools and legalized abortion. As a result, many Catholics and other Christians saw themselves surrounded by a hostile culture. At the same time, the global church was opening up to the modern world through the Second Vatican Council, prompting an internal Catholic split over whether the council's reforms were going too far. American Catholics - better educated and more integrated into American life - fractured along religious and political lines. Once a solid bloc of mostly Democratic voters, Catholics became swing voters, and Catholic Republicans, a rarity in Kennedy's day, gained influence.

Catholic politicians who supported abortion rights came under more intense criticism from church leaders. American bishops called a vote for legalized abortion cooperation with evil.

On the defensive, these Catholic lawmakers paraphrased Kennedy. They said Kennedy was arguing that even if faith shapes policy, the outcome still had to be acceptable to the wider public. Former New York Gov. Cuomo, a Democrat, in a much-quoted 1984 speech on abortion at the University of Notre Dame spoke of "the price of seeking to force our beliefs on others." Democrat John Kerry, the party's 2004 presidential nominee said: "I can't take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist. We have separation of church and state in the United States of America."

For conservative Catholics and other conservative Christians these comments were infuriating. Religion should be the source of an unchanging morality that guides all aspects of life, including governing, they argued. Archbishop Charles Chaput, then head of the Denver archdiocese, in a 2010 speech at Houston Baptist University, called Kennedy's address, "sincere, compelling, articulate and wrong."

"His Houston remarks profoundly undermined the place not just of Catholics, but of all religious believers, in America's public life and political conversation," said Chaput, now head of the Philadelphia archdiocese. "Today, half a century later, we're paying for the damage."

Mathew Schmalz, professor of religion at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., said Santorum, who would be the second Catholic U.S. president if elected in November, is among those who believe the church has surrendered too much to the broader culture and has lost its distinct moral voice.

"When Santorum talks about the Kennedy speech that way, he's obviously making a political point about religion and politics, but he's also making a point about Catholic identity," Schmalz said. "Santorum is part of a very vocal constituency among Catholics, but I would say he's still in the minority."

Gingrich looks ahead to 'Super Tuesday' states

Hopes support in South can revitalize his campaign

By KEN THOMAS

Associated Press

DALTON, Ga. - Plotting a comeback, Newt Gingrich looked beyond Tuesday's Republican presidential primaries in Michigan and Arizona to the Southern voters he hopes will revive his struggling campaign once more, including in his home state.

Gingrich is pinning his hopes on winning Georgia and showing strength in Tennessee, Oklahoma and other Super Tuesday states voting March 6. The former House speaker opened a three-day bus tour in Georgia, which he represented in Congress for 20 years, to fend off rivals Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum on the path to claiming the GOP presidential nomination at the party's convention next summer in the swing state of Florida.

"Winning next Tuesday moves us toward Tampa in a big way," Gingrich said. "Georgia is the biggest group of delegates out there on Super Tuesday so this is a big deal and it really, really matters."

By skipping Tuesday's primaries in Michigan, where the race between Romney and Santorum was close, and in Arizona, where Romney was favored, Gingrich was betting that one of his rivals will emerge as a weaker candidate and give him a chance to climb back into contention in the topsy-turvy race.

Gingrich has acknowledged that winning Georgia is crucial to his campaign but has stopped short of saying a loss there would force him out of race.

Gingrich said Tuesday that spending a week developing his message about gas prices and advancing a plan to drive pump prices down to $2.50 a gallon would pay off. He quipped that a supporter told him that President Barack Obama's 9-9-9 plan - a reference to former GOP candidate Herman Cain's tax plan - "is $9.99 a gallon for gasoline."

Speaking to a few hundred supporters in Dalton, he urged them to pass out leaflets at gas stations and have people calculate how much they'd save if gas prices dropped. He also asked them to "go on Facebook and put Newt(equals)$2.50 a gallon."

Without mentioning Gingrich by name, the White House called his energy plan unrealistic.

"There are numerous factors that go into a spike in global oil prices, and any politician who tells you otherwise is not being honest," said White House press secretary Jay Carney. "When a politician comes out with a three-point plan to reduce gas prices to $2.50 a gallon, they are blowing smoke."

Later in the day, Gingrich targeted Romney, calling him a moderate "pro-choice, pro-gun control, pro-tax increase governor" who would hurt the party's chances in the fall against Obama.

"I don't believe a moderate can beat President Obama. We tried a moderate in 1996, we lost badly. We tried a moderate in 2008, we lost badly," Gingrich said in Rome, Ga. Referring to separate health plans backed by both men, Gingrich said: "I don't think there is enough difference between Romneycare and Obamacare to have a debate. I think it would be silly."

Gingrich has disputed talk that his campaign is in decline. "I've been down this road before," he told Fox News Channel.