She’s Catholic. Maybe. Sort of…
Sure, there’s buzz about the likelihood that Judge Sotomayor is Catholic, but they aren’t discussing the relevance of that fact. Or….if it has any.
But it’s an interesting (though totally predictable)Â buzz, what her faith really is. Good stuff here.
Undoubtedly, Sotomayor’s Catholic-ness will be the subject of some debate. Just how Catholic is she? Steven Waldman, blogging at Beliefnet, quotes a White House official saying, “Judge Sotomayor was raised as a Catholic and attends church for family celebrations and other important events.”
David Gibson, also at Beliefnet, suggests there may be a strategic reason for Sotomayor to downplay her faith affiliation:
“The (awful) question will now be, what KIND of Catholic is she?”
Aha. That’s the key to this whole issue, now that President Obama has stepped into the Catholic divide and given credence to which version of Catholicism is authentic.
Over at GetReligion, Terry Mattingly wonders why the word “Catholic” is not more a part of the early press coverage, and asks if that would be different if Sotomayor were a known opponent of abortion rights:
“Her life story will be a big part of the upcoming mini-debates about her appointment. Here is my question: If she was a pro-life woman, from a Hispanic background, do you think that the word ‘Catholic’ would be appearing higher in these early (I repeat, EARLY) reports about her life and work? Just saying.”
It’s interesting, this early discussion.
Meanwhile, one thing that struck me in President Obama’s remarks about Sotomayor this morning was the language he used to describe the role of Catholic schools in offering children a path out of poverty. This is what he said:
“When Sonia was nine, her father passed away. And her mother worked six days a week as a nurse to provide for Sonia and her brother…But Sonia’s mom bought the only set of encyclopedias in the neighborhood, sent her children to a Catholic school called Cardinal Spellman out of the belief that with a good education here in America all things are possible.”
Yeah, that struck me too. As I said somewhere below here, at this point of Obama’s introduction, with the laudatory remarks about this education, I’m wondering why (to state the obvious) Obama will not continue the voucher system that would allow similarly disadvantaged children access to this same good education.
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Interesting the number of Catholics in Obama’s cabinet. These Catholics tend to be from the “social justice” arm of the Body of Christ, but he does seem to surround himself with Catholics more than Protestants in his inner circle. If Obama ever does meet with the Pope, I think they will get along very well.