The papists are coming, the papists are coming!

Catholics could get majority on high court

By RACHEL ZOLL
AP RELIGION WRITER


More than two centuries of Protestant domination on the Supreme Court will end if Samuel Alito is confirmed as its next justice. For the first time in the nation's history, five Roman Catholics - a majority - would be on the high court...

...Alito, an appeals court judge, and his wife are members of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Parish in Roseland, N.J., a suburban parish which referred inquiries about the judge to the Archdiocese of Newark. Archdiocesan spokesman Jim Goodness said Alito attends Mass weekly and his wife teaches religious education classes at Blessed Sacrament, where his children were confirmed. But Goodness would not comment on whether Alito volunteers for any church work.

Monsignor Thomas Gervasio, the new pastor at Our Lady of Sorrows/Saint Anthony's Parish in Hamilton, N.J., where Alito's mother Rose is a member, said she told him the judge was confirmed, served as a lector and was married in Our Lady of Sorrows. The judge attended public school and enrolled in church religious classes as a boy, Rose Alito told Gervasio.

Taking calls at her Hamilton home, where a small Virgin Mary statue sat on the mantle, the judge's 90-year-old mother asked Gervasio to "say some prayers for Sam" and declared of her son: "Of course, he's against abortion."

Two of the Catholics on the current court - Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas - are abortion foes. Scalia, whose son Paul is a priest, and Thomas are sometimes seen walking together to the court after attending Mass on holy days of obligation...

Article.

You know what's funny - after I heard about Justice Thomas's conversion to Catholicism, I always wondered if he and his ideological soulmate, Justice Scalia, went to Mass together during the week. Here's my answer, I guess! :)