Reverend Meza, Reverend Reck, I'm grateful for your generous invitation to state my views. 梅扎牧师、雷克牧师，感谢你们的盛情邀请，让我有机会阐述我的观点。
While the so-called religious issue is necessarily and properly the chief topic here tonight, I want to emphasize from the outset that I believe that we have far more critical issues in the 1960 campaign. 虽然所谓的宗教问题必然且恰当地成为今晚的主要话题，但我想从一开始就强调，我相信在1960年的竞选活动中，我们面临着更为关键的问题。
The spread of Communist influence, until it now festers only 90 miles from the coast of Florida -- the humiliating treatment of our President and Vice President by those who no longer respect our power -- the hungry children I saw in West Virginia, the old people who cannot pay their doctors' bills, the families forced to give up their farms. 共产主义势力的蔓延，如今它已在距离佛罗里达海岸仅90英里的地方滋生——我们的总统和副总统受到那些不再尊重我们力量的人的羞辱——我在西弗吉尼亚看到的饥饿儿童，那些无力支付医疗费的老人，被迫放弃农场的家庭。
An America with too many slums, with too few schools, and too late to the moon and outer space. These are the real issues which should decide this campaign. And they are not religious issues -- for war and hunger and ignorance and despair know no religious barrier. 一个有着太多贫民窟、太少学校、太晚进入月球和外太空的美国。这些才是应该决定这场竞选的真正问题。它们不是宗教问题——因为战争、饥饿、无知和绝望不分宗教界限。
But because I am a Catholic, and no Catholic has ever been elected President, the real issues in this campaign have been obscured -- perhaps deliberately, in some quarters less responsible than this. So it is apparently necessary for me to state once again -- not what kind of church I believe in, for that should be important only to me -- but what kind of America I believe in. 但因为我是天主教徒，而从未有天主教徒当选过总统，这场竞选的真正问题被掩盖了——也许在某些不太负责任的地方是故意的。因此，显然我有必要再次声明——不是我信仰什么样的教会，这只对我个人重要——而是我信仰什么样的美国。
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. 我信仰一个政教分离绝对彻底的美国；在这里，天主教主教不会告诉总统——即使他是天主教徒——该如何行事，新教牧师也不会告诉他的教民该投票给谁。
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. 在这里，没有任何教会或教会学校获得公共资金或政治优待，也没有人仅仅因为其宗教信仰与可能任命他的总统或可能选举他的人民不同而被剥夺公职。
I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish; where no public official either requests or accept instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source. 我信仰一个官方既不是天主教、新教也不是犹太教的美国；在这里，任何公职人员既不请求也不接受教皇、全国教会理事会或任何其他教会来源关于公共政策的指示。
Where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials, and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all. 在这里，没有宗教团体试图直接或间接地将其意志强加于普通民众或其官员的公共行为之上，在这里宗教自由是不可分割的，反对一个教会的行为被视为反对所有教会的行为。
For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been -- and may someday be again -- a Jew, or a Quaker, or a Unitarian, or a Baptist. 因为今年受到怀疑目光指向的可能是天主教徒，但在其他年份——也许有一天还会——可能是犹太人、贵格会教徒、一神论者或浸信会教徒。
It was Virginia's harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that led to Jefferson's statute of religious freedom. Today, I may be the victim, but tomorrow it may be you -- until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped apart at a time of great national peril. 例如，正是弗吉尼亚州对浸信会牧师的骚扰，导致杰斐逊制定了宗教自由法案。今天，我可能是受害者，但明天可能是你——直到我们和谐社会的整个结构在国家面临巨大危险时被撕裂。
Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end, where all men and all churches are treated as equals, where every man has the same right to attend or not to attend the church of his choice, where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind. 最后，我信仰一个宗教不容忍终将结束的美国，一个所有人和所有教会都受到平等对待的美国，一个每个人都有同样的权利参加或不参加自己选择的教会的美国，一个没有天主教选票、没有反天主教选票、没有任何形式的集团投票的美国。
And where Catholics, Protestants, and Jews, at both the lay and the pastoral levels, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood. 以及一个天主教徒、新教徒和犹太人在平信徒和牧师层面都将摒弃那些过去常常损害他们工作的轻蔑和分裂态度，转而促进美国的兄弟情谊理想的美国。
That is the kind of America in which I believe. And it represents the kind of Presidency in which I believe, a great office that must be neither humbled by making it the instrument of any religious group nor tarnished by arbitrarily withholding it -- its occupancy from the members of any one religious group. 这就是我信仰的美国。它代表了我信仰的总统职位——一个伟大的职位，既不能因为成为任何宗教团体的工具而被贬低，也不能因为任意拒绝某个宗教团体的成员担任这一职位而被玷污。
I believe in a President whose views on religion are his own private affair, neither imposed upon him by the nation, nor imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office. 我信仰一位宗教观点属于他个人隐私的总统，既不被国家强加于他，也不被国家作为担任该职位的条件强加于他。
I would not look with favor upon a President working to subvert the first amendment's guarantees of religious liberty; nor would our system of checks and balances permit him to do so. 我不会赞成总统努力破坏第一修正案保障的宗教自由；我们的制衡制度也不允许他这样做。
And neither do I look with favor upon those who would work to subvert Article VI of the Constitution by requiring a religious test, even by indirection. For if they disagree with that safeguard, they should be openly working to repeal it. 我同样不赞成那些试图通过要求宗教测试来破坏宪法第六条的人，即使是间接的。因为如果他们不同意这一保障，他们应该公开努力废除它。
I want a Chief Executive whose public acts are responsible to all and obligated to none, who can attend any ceremony, service, or dinner his office may appropriately require of him to fulfill. 我希望有一位行政首长，他的公共行为对所有人负责，对任何人都没有义务，他可以出席其职位可能适当要求他参加的任何仪式、礼拜或晚宴。
And whose fulfillment of his Presidential office is not limited or conditioned by any religious oath, ritual, or obligation. 他履行总统职责不受任何宗教誓言、仪式或义务的限制或约束。
This is the kind of America I believe in -- and this is the kind of America I fought for in the South Pacific, and the kind my brother died for in Europe. No one suggested then that we might have a divided loyalty, that we did not believe in liberty, or that we belonged to a disloyal group that threatened -- I quote -- "the freedoms for which our forefathers died." 这就是我信仰的美国——也是我在南太平洋为之战斗、我的兄弟在欧洲为之牺牲的美国。那时没有人暗示我们可能有分裂的忠诚，暗示我们不相信自由，或暗示我们属于一个威胁——我引用——"我们祖先为之牺牲的自由"的不忠团体。
And in fact this is the kind of America for which our forefathers did die when they fled here to escape religious test oaths that denied office to members of less favored churches -- when they fought for the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom. 事实上，这正是我们祖先为之牺牲的美国——当他们逃离这里以逃避拒绝不受青睐教会成员担任公职的宗教测试誓言时——当他们为宪法、权利法案、弗吉尼亚宗教自由法案而战时。
And when they fought at the shrine I visited today, the Alamo. For side by side with Bowie and Crockett died Fuentes, and McCafferty, and Bailey, and Badillo, and Carey -- but no one knows whether they were Catholics or not. For there was no religious test there. 以及当他们在我今天访问的圣地阿拉莫战斗时。与鲍伊和克罗克特并肩作战的有福恩特斯、麦卡弗蒂、贝利、巴迪略和凯里——但没有人知道他们是否是天主教徒。因为那里没有宗教测试。
I ask you tonight to follow in that tradition -- to judge me on the basis of 14 years in the Congress, on my declared stands against an Ambassador to the Vatican, against unconstitutional aid to parochial schools, and against any boycott of the public schools -- which I attended myself. 我今晚请求你们遵循这一传统——根据我在国会14年的经历，根据我公开宣布的反对驻梵蒂冈大使、反对违宪资助教会学校以及反对抵制公立学校的立场来评判我——我自己也曾就读于公立学校。
And instead of doing this, do not judge me on the basis of these pamphlets and publications we all have seen that carefully select quotations out of context from the statements of Catholic church leaders, usually in other countries, frequently in other centuries. 请不要根据我们都看到的那些小册子和出版物来评判我，它们精心挑选天主教教会领袖声明中的引文断章取义，通常来自其他国家，常常来自其他世纪。
And rarely relevant to any situation here. And always omitting, of course, the statement of the American Bishops in 1948 which strongly endorsed Church-State separation, and which more nearly reflects the views of almost every American Catholic. 很少与这里的任何情况相关。当然，它们总是省略1948年美国主教的声明，该声明强烈支持政教分离，更能反映几乎每个美国天主教徒的观点。
I do not consider these other quotations binding upon my public acts. Why should you? 我认为这些其他引文对我的公共行为没有约束力。你为什么要这么认为？
But let me say, with respect to other countries, that I am wholly opposed to the State being used by any religious group, Catholic or Protestant, to compel, prohibit, or prosecute the free exercise of any other religion. 但让我就其他国家说一点，我完全反对国家被任何宗教团体——天主教或新教——用来强迫、禁止或起诉任何其他宗教的自由行使。
And that goes for any persecution, at any time, by anyone, in any country. And I hope that you and I condemn with equal fervor those nations which deny their Presidency to Protestants, and those which deny it to Catholics. 这适用于任何时间、任何人、任何国家的任何迫害。我希望你和我同样强烈谴责那些拒绝新教徒担任总统的国家，以及那些拒绝天主教徒担任总统的国家。
And rather than cite the misdeeds of those who differ, I would also cite the record of the Catholic Church in such nations as France and Ireland, and the independence of such statesmen as De Gaulle and Adenauer. 我不想列举那些持不同意见者的不当行为，而是要列举天主教教会在法国和爱尔兰等国家的记录，以及戴高乐和阿登纳等政治家的独立性。
But let me stress again that these are my views. 但让我再次强调，这些是我的观点。
For contrary to common newspaper usage, I am not the Catholic candidate for President. 与报纸的普遍用法相反，我不是天主教的总统候选人。
I am the Democratic Party's candidate for President who happens also to be a Catholic. 我是民主党总统候选人，恰好是天主教徒。
I do not speak for my church on public matters; and the church does not speak for me. Whatever issue may come before me as President, if I should be elected, on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling or any other subject. 我不在公共事务上代表我的教会发言；教会也不代表我发言。无论我作为总统（如果我当选的话）面临什么问题，无论是节育、离婚、审查制度、赌博还是任何其他问题。
I will make my decision in accordance with these views -- in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be in the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressure or dictates. And no power or threat of punishment could cause me to decide otherwise. 我都会根据这些观点做出决定——根据我的良心告诉我符合国家利益的原则，而不考虑外部宗教压力或指示。任何权力或惩罚威胁都不能让我做出其他决定。
But if the time should ever come -- and I do not concede any conflict to be remotely possible -- when my office would require me to either violate my conscience or violate the national interest, then I would resign the office. 但如果有一天——我不承认任何冲突有丝毫可能——我的职位要求我要么违背良心，要么违背国家利益，那么我会辞职。
And I hope any conscientious public servant would do likewise. 我希望任何有良心的公仆都会这样做。
But I do not intend to apologize for these views to my critics of either Catholic or Protestant faith; nor do I intend to disavow either my views or my church in order to win this election. 但我不打算向我的天主教或新教批评者道歉这些观点；我也不打算为了赢得这次选举而否认我的观点或我的教会。
If I should lose on the real issues, I shall return to my seat in the Senate, satisfied that I'd tried my best and was fairly judged. 如果我在真正的问题上失败了，我将回到参议院的席位，满意于我已经尽了最大努力并得到了公平的评判。
But if this election is decided on the basis that 40 million Americans lost their chance of being President on the day they were baptized, then it is the whole nation that will be the loser. 但如果这次选举的结果是4000万美国人在受洗的那天就失去了担任总统的机会，那么整个国家都将成为输家。
In the eyes of Catholics and non-Catholics around the world, in the eyes of history, and in the eyes of our own people. 在全世界天主教徒和非天主教徒眼中，在历史眼中，在我们自己人民眼中。
But if, on the other hand, I should win this election, then I shall devote every effort of mind and spirit to fulfilling the oath of the Presidency -- practically identical, I might add, with the oath I have taken for 14 years in the Congress. 但另一方面，如果我赢得这次选举，那么我将尽我全部的心力履行总统誓言——我可以补充说，这与我在国会14年所宣誓的几乎完全相同。
For without reservation, I can: "solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution [of the United States] -- so help me God." 因为我可以毫无保留地说："我庄严宣誓，我将忠实执行美国总统的职务，并将尽我最大的能力维护、保护和捍卫美国宪法——上帝帮助我。"