Contrary to reports, Harriet Miers was not raised as a Catholic

Catholic News Service ^ | Catholic News Service | Patricia Zapor

[Stellar Dendrite]

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Harriet Miers was not raised as a Catholic.

Catholic Church records and the White House both refute what has become a boilerplate part of discussions about Miers, the White House general counsel and nominee for the Supreme Court.

News stories, commentaries and editorials nationwide have repeated the description that Miers was brought up Catholic but now attends an evangelical Protestant church.

However, according to White House spokeswoman Maria Tamburri, "Harriet Miers did not grow up Catholic."

When news reports first quoted the nominee's acquaintances as saying she had been raised a Catholic before joining an evangelical Protestant church in 1979, the editor of the Texas Catholic, newspaper of the Dallas Diocese, began checking records of baptisms and other sacraments.

"The Diocese of Dallas has no record of Harriet Miers or her immediate family ever having been a member of the Catholic Church," said Deacon Bronson Havard, spokesman for the Diocese of Dallas and editor of the newspaper. "We have checked all known sacramental records."

Miers' longtime friend, Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht, has been variously quoted as saying Miers was "raised Catholic," or that her family attended both Catholic and Protestant churches or that she "had a Catholic upbringing."

Since her nomination was announced Oct. 3, those comments have evolved into the widespread assumption that Miers was a baptized Catholic who left the church as a young adult to join Valley View Christian Church with a full-immersion baptism. Several local and syndicated newspaper columnists have raised theological concerns about the favorable spin some evangelicals have given to the idea that Miers' left the Catholic Church to "find Christ" as an evangelical Protestant.

Miers might well have occasionally attended Catholic churches as a child or young adult, but there is no evidence that she ever considered herself a Catholic.

Deacon Havard also said as an active Catholic and journalist for 35 years in Dallas he has never heard anyone refer to Miers as a Catholic or former Catholic until the current set of rumors.

He noted that a local Episcopal church has pews dedicated to her parents and that she worshipped there with her family on a recent trip to Dallas. Deacon Havard also said it was reported locally that Miers on the same Sunday attended a worship service by a group that split from Valley View Christian Church, which she and Hecht, among others, recently left.

[Stellar Dendrite]

ping

[Huck]

All completely irrelevant.

[rdb3]

Here's another continuation.

If you want a Google GMail account, FReepmail me.
Also, please see The Backside of American History
You'll love this 187 page .pdf (1.99 MB)

[msnimje]

A "Stealth Catholic?"

[MikefromOhio]

another irrelevancy in the group of irrelevancies....

[American Quilter]

All completely irrelevant.

You said it!

I've been trusting the President on this nomination, but I'm starting to waver. I'm beginning to think she should withdraw her name from consideration.

[Tax-chick]

ping

[TheDon]

In a related story, Miers was not raised as a Jew

[Huck]

I'm beginning to think she should withdraw her name from consideration.

I'm sure the White House will consider your view carefully :-P Relax. Enjoy the circus and wait for the hearings. Whatever will be, will be.

[Shermy]

Anyone else here get a fax from an Abilene Kinko's signed "B.B."? A memo about Miers being a Branch Davidian?

[MikefromOhio]

that's what I am saying.

Whooptiedoo....

I guess they really DON'T have anything else to throw up there....


Next thing you know, they will be saying she is a closet Redskin fan although she lived in Dallas all these years....

[bd476]

From the article:

"The Diocese of Dallas has no record of Harriet Miers or her immediate family ever having been a member of the Catholic Church," said Deacon Bronson Havard, spokesman for the Diocese of Dallas and editor of the newspaper. "We have checked all known sacramental records."

Is confidentiality required from a Church concerning someone's record of Church membership, participation and/or attendance?

[Leonine]

Miers has attended St. John's Episcopal in D.C. for 5 years. Episcopal does matter in that their politics is internationalist.

[TheDon]

LOL! You might as well run it up the flag pole, it seems anything with Miers is fair game these days. Just be sure to use an unnamed source.

[rdb3]

another irrelevancy in the group of irrelevancies....

True. However, that's not going to cause anyone on either side of the divide to downshift out of 5^th gear. Maybe overdrive, if they are equipped.

If you want a Google GMail account, FReepmail me.
Also, please see The Backside of American History
You'll love this 187 page .pdf (1.99 MB)

[Cboldt]

J. Grant Swank, Jr. (ArriveNet Editorials - Oct 05, 2005) -- J. Grant Swank, Jr. Harriet E. Miers was born Roman Catholic. As an adult, she attended Episcopal and Presbyterian worships, seeking a deeper, more personal faith.

http://editorials.arrivenet.com/government/article.php/6200.html

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Hecht says Miers never got married because she "probably worked too hard. She's close to her family, has a sister and three brothers, goes to her nephews' high school football games, bought a car for one of them." She "had a Catholic upbringing, had not been close to the church, it was off again, on again, then she came to a point in her life when she wanted to change that. She made an abrupt change in 79 or 80. She was very hard-working and successful, she wanted new meaning, substance in her life.

http://www.worldmagblog.com/blog/archives/018818.html

---

Miers was born a Roman Catholic but became an evangelical Protestant in 1979. She was guided in that voyage by a good friend and then-colleague at their law firm, Nathan L. Hecht. "One evening she called me to her office and said she was ready to make a commitment," Hecht has said. He took her to his own church, the Valley View Christian Church in Dallas, where she was baptized -- born again. Since then, she has been an active and important member of the church.

Miers: Faithful to Whom? - Richard Cohen - 10/18/05

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Catholic News - Harriet Miers Attorney Harriet E. Miers, President Bush's latest nominee for the U. S. Supreme Court, was raised a Catholic, attended Southern Methodist University and law school and became an Evangelical Christian in her mid-30s when she joined the Texas Republican Party. (Photo Randy Eli Grothe/The Dallas Morning News)

http://www.culturalcatholic.com/

The relevance, for those who assert here is no relevance, is to the CREDIBILITY of the character witnesses.

There is no issue at all if she is/was Catholic, Episocpalian, or God forbid, a Lutheran. The inquiry is her judicial acumen and legal philosophy vis-a-vis Con Law.

[Gelato]

The church affiliation of Miers is irrelevant.

What is relevant is that this report damages the credibility of some of Miers' supporters. Perhaps they didn't know her as well as they thought.

[Stellar Dendrite]

" The relevance, for those who assert here is no relevance, is to the CREDIBILITY of the character witnesses."

exactly, btw thank you for posting the articles.

[American Quilter]

I'm sure the White House will consider your view carefully :-P

Yes, they call me every night.

Relax.

I am. I have the keyboard in my lap and my feet on the desk.

Enjoy the circus and wait for the hearings. Whatever will be, will be.

You're very zen! I'm reading that the hearings are not shaping up well for her. If she's really as little-qualified as the reports indicate, I think she should withdraw her name. We don't need nice ladies with mediocre qualifications on the United States Supreme Court. We need superbly well-qualified men and women with ferocious intellects and an unswerving dedication to strict constitutionalism.