Fr. Reese are you sure about your comment about the Catholic Church (in the USA) fuming against the First Amendment?  If  I read my American history correctly the American Catholic Church not only supported the Separation Clause but greatly benefited from it.  The early American Nation was overwhelming and aggressively Protestant and resulted in a vehement anti-Catholic/Papist attitude (the Know-Nothings).  The Catholic Church sought protection of the First Amendment.  Public schools in this era promoted and often mandated prayer which was not challenged by the public and/or courts.  All this changed in the latter part of 19th Century when through IMMIGRATION the Protestant grip over the nation had weakened.  However, Cardinal Gibbons was dismayed by Catholic children in public schools being forced to recite the Protestant version of the Our Father.  Under the Separation Clause Card. Gibbons sought remedy from the courts in which he was unsuccessful.  Thus the birth of the RC schools.