Last July, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern, in response to a sermon criticising his Civil Partnership legislation, said when he legislated, he didn’t “bring whatever religion I have to the table”.

Earlier this month, Archbishop Charles Chaput, of Denver, addressed this topic before the Houston Baptist University. Specifically, he tackled one of the most noteworthy speeches in favour of the extremely secular view taken by Mr Ahern, a 1960 speech made by then Senator John Kennedy during his Presidential campaign.

Archbishop Chaput quotes Kennedy’s statement: “I believe in an America where the separation of Church and state is absolute,” and argues that those remarks “profoundly undermined the place not just of Catholics, but of all religious believers, in America’s public life and political conversation”.

“Today, half a century later, we’re paying for the damage,” Archbishop Chaput adds.

The whole speech is worth reading. If you want to watch and listen to the speech, you can do so here (about 7.55 minutes in).