Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Digital Library Collections This is a PDF of a folder from our textual collections. Collection: Barr, William: Files Folder Title: [Catholic League] Box: 2 To see more digitized collections visit: https://reaganlibrary.gov/archives/digital-library To see all Ronald Reagan Presidential Library inventories visit: https://reaganlibrary.gov/document-collection Contact a reference archivist at:
[email protected] Citation Guidelines: https://reaganlibrary.gov/citing National Archives Catalogue: https://catalog.archives.gov/ June 27, 1983 FOR: BILL BARR FROM: MIKE UHLMANN I'd like you to review the enclosed material from the Catholic League and consider the following: (1) Arthur Schlesinger was right years ago when he described anti-Catholicism as the intellectual's counterpart to anti-Semitism among the masses. (2) With the exception of outfits like the League, RC's tend to take abuse lying down. Their reasons for doing so derive from a long and complicated sociology, but it remains the case that little attention is paid to anti-Catholic libels. (3) Much the same can be said about the snide and casual canards leveled at Protestant fundamentalists -- how fashionable it is, e.g., for a President of Yale to attack Falwell and Co. as if they were preparing thumbscrews and racks for non-believers. (4) Nevertheless, anti-Catholic and anti-fundamentalist attacks are offensive not only to the targets but to the principle of religious tolerance which lies at the heart of our institutions. Such prejudice should be treated in the same manner as anti-Semitic and anti-black prejudice. (5) All of which leads up to a proposal to which I'd like your reactions: why not have the President deliver a major address on religious and racial bigotry in the U.S.? He would begin by invoking Jeffers~n and Lincoln on the meaning of the Declaration, thence to a brief history of racial and religious bigotry in the U.S.