Reagan’s Real Catholics vs. Tip O’Neill’s Maryknoll Nuns: Gender, Intra-Catholic Conflict, and the Contras

Abstract

Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill’s decision to oppose U.S.-Nicaragua policy based on Maryknoll nuns’ advice led Ronald Reagan and his supporters to question O’Neill’s authenticity as a Catholic and his masculinity. Catholics and non-Catholics argued that true Catholics backed U.S. policy because, as they incorrectly asserted, the pope did. While 25 years earlier presidential candidate John F. Kennedy faced questions about his primary loyalty as a Catholic, Reagan and his allies promoted the stereotype that Catholics should fall in line behind the pope. Likewise, the Maryknoll Sisters were bad nuns for failing to obey male Church leaders who supported the contras. The response to the O’Neill-Maryknoll connection revealed how intra-Catholic conflict influenced U.S. policy, challenging scholars’ stress on evangelical Protestants’ influence on Reagan and on inter-religious conflict during the Cold War.