Rick Santorum
© Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesGOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum.
Former senator Rick Santorum defended his comment that President John F. Kennedy's 1960 speech about the importance the separation of religion from government "makes him throw up."

"To say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes you throw up. What kind of country do we live that says only people of non-faith can come into the public square and make their case?" Santorum said Sunday at a campaign event here in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Santorum is locked in a tight race with Mitt Romney in Michigan, whose GOP presidential primary is being held Tuesday.

He made his initial comments about the Kennedy speech during an appearance earlier Sunday on ABC's This Week. "I don't believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute," he said on the talk-show program.

Kennedy, the first Catholic president, gave his speech to a group of Protestant ministers during his bid for president in order to put concerns about his faith.

The Kennedy quote referenced by Santorum is 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.
Santorum, who is also Catholic, said the Kennedy speech was part of an effort to begin to "force God out of the public square."

After referencing his appearance on the Sunday show, Santorum told the crowd here that the news media was shocked he would make such a statement.

"How dare you say that John F Kennedy speech in Houston was something that makes you sick," he said. "Why? Because he said this. 'I believe in an America with the separation of church and state is absolute.' That is France not America."