Senate Should Question Amy Coney Barrett About Her Ties To People Of Praise

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(OPINION) In 2017, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) — a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee — grilled Amy Coney Barrett — then nominated for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit — about her Catholic faith. “The dogma lives loudly within you,” she said. 

That likely wasn’t Feinstein’s best moment, raising hackles among many Catholics about a perceived presumption that a judge’s Catholicism should keep them off the bench. As we see in the current composition of the Supreme Court, Catholicism doesn’t mean marching in lockstep. Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s faith and progressive judicial viewpoint is far different from that of fellow Catholics Brett Kavanaugh, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. 

President Donald Trump did not nominate Barrett to her current seat and now to the Supreme Court because she was Catholic. He chose the mother of seven because she is deeply conservative, and in this current climate that means being anti-abortion and pro-business. 

What Feinstein did not explore three years ago was Barrett’s membership in the faith group People of Praise, a small, somewhat secretive ecumenical charismatic group criticized for its authoritarian leanings — including its reliance on male leadership in the community and even the family. The fact that Barrett seems reluctant to discuss this facet of her faith life makes it all the more troubling. 

Barrett did not disclose her membership in the group when she was nominated to the court of appeals in 2017. And any mention of her on the People of Praise website reportedly was scrubbed a few years ago. She disclosed that she served as a trustee of Trinity School, but didn’t identify it more completely. Many private schools are named Trinity, but the New York Times confirmed Barrett’s service at the Trinity school in South Bend, Indiana — one of three schools founded by People of Praise. Prospective judges are asked to report any speeches they’ve given, and Barrett did disclose that she gave a commencement address at the school in 2011. But a copy of that speech is not part of the public record. 

Now that Barrett has been nominated to serve on the nation’s highest court, the Senate Judiciary Committee has every right to respectfully ask her about the group and her current ties to it, not to create some kind of “gotcha” moment, but to ascertain just what influence it could have on her judicial temperament. Such questions, contends Catholic scholar Massimo Faggioli, should be “front and center” of the Senate’s inquiry. 

That’s because, as its website makes clear, People of Praise is not just a group of believers who get together for coffee after church services. Members of the group believe that God intervenes directly in their lives and that prayer can heal both our bodies and our souls. During services, members may speak in tongues, which to the untutored sounds like gibberish. As a journalist, I’ve covered Catholic charismatic groups and found the speaking in tongues a bit jarring (but not necessarily objectionable).

But the group’s overwhelming influence on their members’ lives is concerning, particularly when we’re discussing a potential Supreme Court justice with decades of service ahead of her. 

Members develop close, long-lasting friendships with one another and make deep commitments to one another. The community has about 1,700 followers living in 22 cities across North America and in the Caribbean. Barrett’s father and her spouse’s father have both been leaders in the group. 

Former members have accused the group of exerting inordinate pressure on members to follow the group’s lay leaders, and to designate a women’s spouse as her “head” or spiritual adviser. 

Adrian Reimers, who helped found the group, later wrote a book called Not Reliable Truths criticizing it. A married woman, he wrote, “is expected always to reflect the fact that she is under her husband’s authority. … Whatever she does requires at least his tacit approval.” 

People of Praise officials say that every member of the group is free to follow the dictates of his or her own conscience.

Nevertheless, the reports that People of Praise presents a view of marriage that makes the man the ultimate decider is disturbing. Does that mean that Barrett would consult with her husband about major decisions facing the court? And how much weight would his view carry? Are we nominating one justice or two?

Would she believe that rape in marriage is possible? And does she believe in equal pay for women, and equal employment rights? 

Barrett has every right to let her spouse decide family matters. But if she is going to be making decisions that will affect every American, it is not impertinent to ask these questions. It is what we expect our Senators to do. That’s not anti-Catholic. That’s patriotic.  

Celia Viggo Wexler is the author of Catholic Women Confront Their Church: Stories of Hurt and Hope (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016).