1. What does the first amendment mean today for Catholics in the United States? Can one be fully Catholic and fully American?
2. Is it possible for Catholics to be loyal to both the Magisterium of the Catholic Church as well as to the will of the people expressed in American forms of government?
3. What is the proper role of a Catholic politician, in light of this same dual loyalty to the Church and the American people?
4. How do recent examples of prominent Catholic public servants—Democrats like Ted Kennedy, Mario Cuomo, Robert Casey, and John Kerry; and Republicans like Rick Santorum, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, and Sam Brownback—differ on their understandings of the relationship between Catholicism and American public life?
5. What is the proper role of Catholic bishops in their contributions to American public life? Is it right for bishops to try to influence the voting of their congregants? What can we learn from the examples of such documents as Economic Justice for All (1986), The Challenge of Peace (1988), and Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility (published every four years since 1975)?
6. Should a member of the Catholic clergy run for political office? What can be learned today from the example of former Congressman Rev. Robert Drinan, S.J., also the former Dean of the Boston College Law School?
7. What are the issues that Catholic politicians ought to address in American public life? How ought Catholic views on abortion, just war, stem cell research, poverty, homosexuality, just wages, and others inform American public debate?
8. How will the role of Catholics in public life be affected by the demographic changes in the Church: e.g. the movement of Catholics from the inner city to the suburbs; the influx of immigrants from Latin America, Africa, and Asia; the shift from the historic membership in the Democratic Party to greater representation in the Republican party?
9. How have American attitudes toward Catholic politicians changed in recent years? Are the expectations toward them different from the expectations toward other public figures?
10. What do the recent elevations of two Catholic justices to the Supreme Court tell us about the role of Catholic politicians in the United States today?
11. What are the different attitudes among Democrats and Republicans toward their Catholic members?