{"id":2996,"date":"2005-09-01T09:33:12","date_gmt":"2005-09-01T09:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2005\/09\/a-catholic-temperment.html"},"modified":"2005-09-01T09:33:12","modified_gmt":"2005-09-01T09:33:12","slug":"a-catholic-temperment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2005\/09\/a-catholic-temperment.html","title":{"rendered":"A Catholic Temperment"},"content":{"rendered":"

On John Roberts in NRO:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n

So where should we look, to get a glimpse of what a Justice Roberts would be like on the Court? I would suggest that part of answer lies in his Catholicism. Described as a "devout" Catholic, Roberts received a Catholic education before heading to the strongly secularist world of Harvard \u2014 in the 1960s, no less. When I see Roberts speak, ever so succinctly, or read his equally succinct writings, I see one of my students. In my 15 years at not only a<\/em> Catholic university, but the<\/em> Catholic University of America, many capable (and occasionally not so capable) students have come through my Constitutional Law classes. Many of my better students have been quiet, thoughtful, respectful, and very attentive to their obligations \u2014 but drawing them into critical argument can be another matter. Roberts’s record seems to reflect a Catholic discipline and comfort with hierarchical roles and authority; he has learned how to tame \u2014 in an amiable manner \u2014 his intellect and emotions for a larger cause or obligation, be it a president, a client, or the law itself. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

It may be that such training is so embedded in Roberts’s character that he will be disinclined to engage in the larger dialogue necessary to responsible constitutional interpretation. But it seems at least as plausible that his Catholic humility and patience have helped him be content in his roles, and that he will understand and welcome the larger thinking required for excellence in the new role he has been called upon to perform. Given the strength of both his intellect and his religious faith, that seems particularly likely. And if this proves to be the case, and a more robust and forceful Roberts jurisprudence emerges, we will be glad that whispering in his ear, dampening his ego, will be that Catholic understanding of the frailty of man. Wedded to a forceful intellect not afraid to stand on principle, that constraint creates a fruitful, responsible balance, and surely the law and the Court could use that today.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On John Roberts in NRO: So where should we look, to get a glimpse of what a Justice Roberts would be like on the Court? I would suggest that part of answer lies in his Catholicism. Described as a "devout" Catholic, Roberts received a Catholic education before heading to the strongly secularist world of Harvard…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nA Catholic Temperment - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2005\/09\/a-catholic-temperment.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Catholic Temperment - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On John Roberts in NRO: So where should we look, to get a glimpse of what a Justice Roberts would be like on the Court? I would suggest that part of answer lies in his Catholicism. Described as a "devout" Catholic, Roberts received a Catholic education before heading to the strongly secularist world of Harvard…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2005\/09\/a-catholic-temperment.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-09-01T09:33:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"awelborn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Catholic Temperment - Via Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2005\/09\/a-catholic-temperment.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Catholic Temperment - Via Media","og_description":"On John Roberts in NRO: So where should we look, to get a glimpse of what a Justice Roberts would be like on the Court? I would suggest that part of answer lies in his Catholicism. Described as a "devout" Catholic, Roberts received a Catholic education before heading to the strongly secularist world of Harvard…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2005\/09\/a-catholic-temperment.html","og_site_name":"Via Media","article_published_time":"2005-09-01T09:33:12+00:00","author":"awelborn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2005\/09\/a-catholic-temperment.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2005\/09\/a-catholic-temperment.html","name":"A Catholic Temperment - Via Media","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website"},"datePublished":"2005-09-01T09:33:12+00:00","dateModified":"2005-09-01T09:33:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2005\/09\/a-catholic-temperment.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2005\/09\/a-catholic-temperment.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2005\/09\/a-catholic-temperment.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Catholic Temperment"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/","name":"Via Media","description":"Amy Welborn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a","name":"awelborn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","caption":"awelborn"},"description":"Amy Welborn was born in 1960, the only child of a now-retired professor of political science, a teacher-librarian-artist mother,deceased since 2001, was a teacher, librarian and artist. The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2996\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}