Getting The Irish Up, The Protestant Lamp Passing

Mitt Romney, Mormon, selects Paul Ryan, Catholic.  The Irish Times notes that  "lace curtain" and  "Shanty" Irish are represented on the national ticket and 10-11-12 promises to be a battle for the ages.  Obama, a Muslim/Christian/Secularist rounds out the field.  No Protestant appears on either ticket.  Irish Times' Niall O'Dowd takes notice. I've been reading the Irish Times for years, can't say why, for sure.  But the point of view is distinctly unique; not British, not Jewish, not crazy.  I remember when Dan Rooney, Catholic, Republican owner of the Steelers sold out Western PA to buy the Ambassadorship to Ireland from Obama - the Brother - as he made his way around the leagues high-fiving with the Bros before Hos creeps.  Since then, the Bros have kinda "distinguished" themselves more as Ho Hounds than Gentlemen and the Ambassador has shown "preferential treatment" to some players whose behavior towards women has gotten them arrested. 

But the Irish Times has followed U.S. Politics faithfully, and notes "daughter" Maureen Dowd's pieces on occasion.  This OpEd, however, opens my eyes to an otherwise bypassed matter of fact.  The U.S. Supreme Court now consists of 6 Catholics and 3 Jews.  Whoah!

W.A.S.P. where art thou?  My Sister-In-Law, Ernestine, is a practicing Catholic.  She teaches C.C.D. classes, performs the Eucharistic Ministry, has been a choir singer and committee volunteer.  I love that she maintains contact with all my mother's church friends.  I go to church with her sometimes.  It's "mass" to them.  To me, it's a gentle exchange with the kind of folks with whom I matured.  Some of us Catholics struggled with the shield behind which too many pedophiles hid.  I had more of an issue with the distribution of decision making authority in the Church, namely the same bishops who quietly re-assigned child-molesters and allowed pastors to enrich themselves.  I also rebelled utterly against my judgmental family who considered my life their personal playground in which they could bully and push me around by asserting MY responsibility to just eat it when I was stiffed or cheated by a spouse, employer, rival, "turn the other cheek" advice which they never applied to themselves.  I learned the difference between Christian and Catholic.  I was happy to see John Paul II go so far to advance the value of "Being With You" as the essence of his Papacy. Ironically, in passing, he was received by Terri Schaivo whose end of life saga was the battleground of political evangelists.

So, when I read for the second time in as many days, that the two Irish Catholic Americans on the Vice Presidential campaigns represented a change in American Power, I did the extra clicks to read the entire article.  O'Dowd notes, also, that the U.S. Supreme Court, once a bastion of Protestantism, has surged to the forefront of "diversity" with, whaddya know?  Catholics and Jews!!!

Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr...Roman Catholic
Justice Antonin Scalia....................Roman Catholic
Justice Anthony Kennedy..............Roman Catholic
Justice Clarence Thomas...............Roman Catholic
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.........Jewish
Justice Stephen Breyer..................Jewish
Justice Samuel Alito......................Roman Catholic
Justice Sonia Sotomayor...............Roman Catholic
Justice Elena Kagan......................Jewish