Did Clarence Thomas just say he's not Catholic?

UPDATE: From reader Eric G., a link to a CBS News article about the "60 Minutes" interview with Clarence Thomas, which fills in some gaps in the New York Sun article discussed below, including this: "Thomas says the [confirmation] hearings brought him back to his Catholic faith and he couldn’t have gotten through them without the support of his wife Virginia."

Also note this March 2007 Business Week article/interview (mentioned in the comments section by Glenn Chen), in which Thomas says the following about his time at Holy Cross Seminary as a young man:

Was it a loss for Holy Cross to rely more on lay professors?
Yes. They're not Jesuits. They lost the religiosity. A priest is a priest. A nun is a nun. For me, it's better. It's a Catholic school. It looks more identifiably Catholic when you have religious people running it. I think it's a loss. I liked it the way it was. I was not a practicing Catholic when I went there. I had left the church. But I just feel strongly that it's a Catholic school. I'm a practicing Catholic now, in part because I went to Holy Cross.

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A reader (thanks, Paz!) just sent me a link to this October 1st New York Sun article about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The piece is, of course, about politics and some of Thomas's recent remarks about the Anita Hill situation:

In an extended interview on CBS News's "60 Minutes," broadcast last night and tonight, to accompany his memoir, "My Grandfather's Son," out today, Justice Thomas explained why he believes he was accused of sexual harassment by a female colleague, Anita Hill. "The issue was abortion," he said.

He fiercely defended his description of the Senate confirmation hearings, at which Ms. Hill presented her allegations, as "a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves."

"If someone just wantonly tries to destroy you, if somebody comes in and drags you out of your house, and beats the hell out of you, what is it? … I think most well meaning people understand it for what it was. It was a weapon to destroy me, clear and simple," he said.

Perhaps more surprising, at least to those of us (myself included) who thought that Thomas was a practicing Catholic, is this admission, which, if reportedly accurately, indicates that Thomas hasn't been a practicing Catholic for nearly four decades:

Justice Thomas said he had hoped to become a Catholic priest but left the seminary when, on the day Martin Luther King Jr. was shot dead, he was confronted with racist beliefs that changed his views forever. A fellow student said: "‘Well, that's good. I hope the S.O.B. dies.' And that was it. That was the end of seminary. That was the end of the vocation. That was the end of, for all practical purposes, my Catholic faith." [emphasis added]

A website devoted to the history of the Supreme Court has this about the incident described by Thomas:

Because his grandfather wanted him to become a priest, Thomas left his black parochial high school after two years to attend a Catholic boarding school just outside Savannah. The only African-American in his class at St. John Vianney Minor Seminary, Thomas suffered from the bigotry of many students, but managed to excel academically. At lights out a classmate would tease, "Smile, Clarence, so we can see you, " he later recalled. In 1967 Thomas entered Immaculate Conception Seminary in northwestern Missouri to prepare for the priesthood. The prejudice he encountered there convinced him to quit a school that did not practice what it preached. The last straw was a fellow student's delight at hearing the news that Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., had been slain.

The bio concludes: "Age forty-three when appointed, Thomas is the youngest member of the Court. Gregarious, with a hearty laugh, Thomas enjoys lifting weights, watching basketball, and smoking cigars. Although born a Baptist and raised a Catholic, he now regularly attends an Episcopal church."

As far as I can tell, it is commonly believed that Thomas is Catholic and is a practicing, devout one at that. But if what he said is true, why has that been the common perception? Strange.

Comments

[Charles Silesia]

I thought he left the Church as a result of the incident you mention and became an Episcopalian, and then returned again to the Catholic Church a few years ago.

[David Cheney]

My understanding is that Thomas was inactive for many years after departing the seminary. However, while he was on SCOTUS, he was invited to another judge's son's ordination to the priesthood (Scalia, I think). That experience re-awakened his interest in Catholicism and shortly thereafter he returned to an active practice of his faith.

[Glenn Chen]

In an interview with BusinessWeek published on March 12, 2007, Justice Thomas personally and explicitly clarified the matter to my satisfaction:

Was it a loss for Holy Cross to rely more on lay professors?
Yes. They're not Jesuits. They lost the religiosity. A priest is a priest. A nun is a nun. For me, it's better. It's a Catholic school. It looks more identifiably Catholic when you have religious people running it. I think it's a loss. I liked it the way it was. I was not a practicing Catholic when I went there. I had left the church. But I just feel strongly that it's a Catholic school. I'm a practicing Catholic now, in part because I went to Holy Cross. [emphasis added]

It's a fascinating interview if you haven't read it already.

[Mark Brumley]

Once again, gang, let's remember not to take what we read in the MSM at face value. Esp. when the topic is Christianity.

[Jeff Miller]

What Wikipedia has on this I believe to be correct.

"Since joining the Supreme Court, Thomas requested an annulment of his first marriage from the Catholic Church, which was granted by the Tribunal of the Catholic Diocese of Arlington. He was reconciled to the Catholic Church in the mid-1990s and remains a practicing Catholic."

[Ed Peters]

These are good replies to a good question...

[Victoria]

Can anyone name a high profile figure whose annulment application was refused? Is anyone's annulment application refused these days?

[Catholic_in_the_Dominion]

Justice Thomas actually goes to my parish is northern Virginia. I see him regularly chatting with the pastor for quite some time after Holy Mass. Ergo...

[Mark Brumley]

Victoria: I can't off the top of my head, if we exclude Joe Kennedy's situation. But then I don't suppose that's the sort of thing that gets advertised before the world. Does this really need to become a discussion about annulments? And--pardon me because I don't know your background--are we all sufficiently knowledgable about the subject here to have opinions worth posting, or will this just amount to a series of rants based on superficial perceptions?

[Mike D'Virgilio]

I heard most of the interview Rush Limbaugh did with Justice Thomas yesterday, and I was struck by how spiritual minded the man is. References to God and prayer were sprinkled throughout the almost hour and a half interview. No wonder the secular left hates him so much. He came through tremendous struggles to succeed and refused to ever see himself as a victim. A very dangerous black man.

[Mike D'Virgilio]

Also, from an interview at National Review Online:

And how do you get over losing your religious faith? That’s part of Thomas’s story, too. When I ask him what it was that ultimately brought him back to the Catholic faith of his youth, Thomas tells me, “my grandfather used to say something. He used to say you just live long enough. He was right.” Life, Thomas says, “is so full of uncertainties and challenges.” He says that his “faith came back slowly . . . and then flooded in.” He recalls, “I really completed my journey home when I returned to my Catholic faith.”

[Jackson]

On the left side of this page, you can watch some videos of Justice Thomas. The Q&A session vid really reveals him as a wonderful man:

http://www.c-span.org/resources/judiciary.asp

[pazdziernik]

Once again, gang, let's remember not to take what we read in the MSM at face value. Esp. when the topic is Christianity

The NY Sun is just quoting what Justice Thomas said on CBS news. Give the reporters some slack.

[Sandra Miesel]

Here's a nasty anti-Thomas screed from a nationally syndicated black columnist:

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/OPINION/710020328/1002/OPINION

[Mark Brumley]

The NY Sun is just quoting what Justice Thomas said on CBS news. Give the reporters some slack.

Reporters are obliged to follow up and put statements in context.