Perhaps his stomach discomfort prevented Senator Santorum from reading beyond the semicolon. 

            The third paragraph of then-Senator Kennedy’s speech to the Houston Ministerial Association in 1960 begins with the words that upset Mr. Santorum.

            I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute;

            The full paragraph reads as follows:

            I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute; where no Catholic prelate would tell the President — should he be Catholic — how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference, and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him, or the people who might elect him.

            The relationship between church and state in the public square is a complex one.  Before the decade is over, the Supreme Court will be asked to decide whether a religious entity’s employees are entitled to health care inconsistent with their employer’s beliefs or whether a same-gender married couple can be denied recognition or service by a religious institution or a devout individual. 

             By misleading the public as to the full content of what Senator Kennedy said and then characterizing his reaction in such a base manner, Senator Santorum has reached a wretchedly new low in campaign rhetoric.