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

Ralph Ellison's Angle of Vision

The novel's central figure tells not only of black history and culture, black psy­chology and politics, but gives a full account of a nation's mid-century life, rural and urban.

The News You May Have Missed: April 2021

Cough Crime... Can o’ Corona... Rethinking Her Ink... Roller Squad... Hard to Stomach... Mystery of the Mad Man... and more

Lenten Wood, Easter Fire

The thorns on a locust tree can be six inches long, with smaller thorns sprouting from them. Appalachians call the locust the Jesus Tree.