Volume > Issue > Catholic Chic

Catholic Chic

GUEST COLUMN

By Richard Crepeau | April 2002
Richard Crepeau is Professor of History at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. This column previously appeared on PopPolitics.com.

Is it some sort of new chic?

Am I somehow suddenly “in”?

For some reason over the past several months there seems to have been a rash of people popping up “everywhere” who claim, and I emphasize “claim,” to have been “raised Catholic.” The most recent is the guy who played “Puddy” on Seinfeld, who made his confession to Terry Gross on Fresh Air.

Reading the newspaper, I discover politicians who were “raised Catholic.” Celebrities of all sorts from television, movies, or some esoteric branch of show business or the arts tell the world with a wink and a nod that they were “raised Catholic.” It seems to resonate with everyone. There seems to be an unspoken understanding of the precise meaning of this biographical fact.

Enjoyed reading this?

READ MORE! REGISTER TODAY

SUBSCRIBE

You May Also Enjoy

The Traditional Catholic Worker Movement

Dorothy Day's movement is a solid expression of traditional Catholicism, rooted in the spirituality and thought of the Church.

The Realm of Faith

Lo! reason dear: first passage to wisdom,/ The prelude to faith, soul's viaticum,/ For its long journey to eternity/ And to the ultimate Epiphany,/ The beatific, three-fold unity

The Extinction of the Human Race Has Already Begun

Can we expect nuclear annihilation to pass us by while daily, in each major city of the U.S., hun­dreds of innocent human lives are systematically erased?