By Sean Fitzpatrick, Catholic World Report, Oct. 8, 2024
Sean Fitzpatrick is a graduate of Thomas Aquinas College and serves on the faculty of Gregory the Great Academy in Elmhurst, Pennsylvania. He teaches Literature, Mythology, and Humanities. Mr. Fitzpatrick’s writings on education, literature, and culture have appeared in a number of journals including Crisis Magazine, Catholic Exchange, the Cardinal Newman Society’s Journal for Educators, and the Imaginative Conservative. He lives in Scranton with his wife, Sophie, and their seven children.
There is an interesting connection between the crisis of faith that plagues this venerable part of Catholic America and why Trump probably will win this key battleground state.
President Joe Biden recently attended the funeral of a childhood friend of his at his old parish of St. Paul’s in the Green Ridge section of Scranton. He came quietly, delivered a eulogy in the small neighborhood church on Penn Avenue, and departed quietly. Whatever his exact status as a Catholic in good standing, Biden’s appearance at an Irish-Catholic funeral in this old Catholic town is a mark of the politically Catholic identity of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
The shoots, however, aren’t as Catholic as the roots. There is an interesting connection between the crisis of faith that plagues this venerable part of Catholic America and why Donald Trump will likely carry the battleground state of Pennsylvania in November. …