received Last Rites after his death<\/a>. Scalia, appointed to the Court in 1986, was the longest-serving Supreme Court justice on the bench and one of five Catholic justices.<\/p>\nThe son of an Italian immigrant, he was baptized in the Cathedral of the Diocese of Trenton, N.J. and attended Xavier Catholic High School in New York City and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He and his wife had nine children, including Fr. Paul Scalia who is a priest in the Diocese of Arlington.<\/p>\n
After his death, Catholic legal scholars and bishops all praised Scalia\u2019s intellectual acumen and deep Catholic faith.<\/p>\n
Bishop David O\u2019Connell of Trenton, Scalia\u2019s home diocese, called him \u201ca devout Catholic\u201d who \u201cwas widely regarded as one of the brightest American legal minds in recent decades\u201d in a statement on the diocesan website.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a man of extraordinary legal genius and fidelity to the Constitution,\u201d stated Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia.\u00a0 However, he added, \u201cthe larger part\u201d of Scalia\u2019s character \u201cwas his enduring Christian character.\u00a0 His life as a husband, father, friend, scholar and judge was shaped profoundly by his Catholic faith. What made him \u2018great\u2019 in the only way that finally matters was his moral integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bishop James Conley of Lincoln recalled his admiration of Scalia from a one dinner where he sat next to the justice and conversed with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a graduate degree in moral theology, and still, the depth of his reflections, and the obvious extent of his research, astounded me.\u00a0 No one, no matter his politics, can credibly deny Scalia\u2019s genius,\u201d he said in an op-ed in the Southern Nebraska Register.<\/p>\n
And Scalia was open about his faith. His 2013 interview with New York Magazine raised eyebrows when he candidly revealed his belief in the existence of the devil.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, c\u2019mon, that\u2019s standard Catholic doctrine!\u201d he told the surprised interviewer. \u201cI mean, Jesus Christ believed in the Devil! It\u2019s in the Gospels!\u201d<\/p>\n
Although he was a man of deep faith, however, Scalia did not invoke his faith to reach \u201cCatholic\u201d decisions at the Court, scholars maintained.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe understood that he held an office, as a matter of public trust, and that that office had limits,\u201d Walsh said. \u201cHis job was to apply the federal law of our country as faithfully as he could.\u201d<\/p>\n
An example of Scalia affirming this was his 2007 keynote address at a Villanova Law School conference, as reported by the journal First Things, where he said that \u201cthere is no such thing as a \u2018Catholic judge\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bottom line is that the Catholic faith seems to me to have little effect on my work as a judge,\u201d he said. \u201cJust as there is no \u2018Catholic\u2019 way to cook a hamburger, I am hard pressed to tell you of a single opinion of mine that would have come out differently if I were not Catholic.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a 2002 essay for First Things on the morality of the death penalty, he prefaced it with this statement:<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore proceeding to discuss the morality of capital punishment, I want to make clear that my views on the subject have nothing to do with how I vote in capital cases that come before the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
That statement would not be true if I subscribed to the conventional fallacy that the Constitution is a \u2018living document\u2019 \u2013 that is, a text that means from age to age whatever the society (or perhaps the Court) thinks it ought to mean.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scalia\u2019s emphasis on interpreting the law as it was originally written and intended drew criticism from some Catholics that he was a \u201clegal positivist\u201d who ignored or downplayed the moral content of the law to focus on its original meaning. Walsh argued that is a misinterpretation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what he [Scalia] drew from Natural Law was an understanding that there are moral benefits to positive law, to adhering to things that were decided in the past, to use them to resolve disputes now,\u201d he explained. \u201cThat there is a serious moral underpinning to insisting on sticking with the law, even when it doesn\u2019t lead to outcomes that you prefer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The interpretation of human law for the citizenry \u2013 as seen in Scalia\u2019s work \u2013 was emphasized by St. Thomas Aquinas, Walsh added. Law, in the classical sense, \u201cis an ordinance of reason for the common good made by one with authority and promulgated,\u201d Walsh said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Justice Scalia\u2019s jurisprudence really brings out the significance of promulgation in human law, that is, put out there in a form that could be understood, put out there in a form that you can hold the government, as well as the governed, to, set forth in authoritative text there to be applied by judges and other government officials.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Scalia, in interpreting the law as it was written, was uncomfortable with some actions he ruled were constitutional, Walsh noted. In Texas v. Johnson, he sided with the majority opinion that the burning of an American flag was protected under the First Amendment as a lawful expression of free speech.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have pained him to see a flag being burned,\u201d Walsh said, but he ruled that way \u201cbecause our Constitution protects people from not being punished for expressing views that people disagree with. And that was a difficult vote for him in one sense, but not at all once he knew what the law required.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other critics might charge that Scalia\u2019s \u201cconservative\u201d Catholic faith improperly influenced his decisions on abortion, marriage, and religious freedom, but that too is misguided, Garnett said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one is perfectly consistent, of course, but it seems clear that Justice Scalia did not see his votes and opinions in cases as opportunities to impose Catholicism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For instance, Scalia\u2019s dissent in Planned Parenthood v. Casey \u2013 where in 1992 the Court upheld the Roe ruling that decided a woman\u2019s legal right to have an abortion \u2013 was based on his opinion that a legal right to abortion was not in the Constitution, not that it was immoral.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is, quite simply, the issue in this case: not whether the power of a woman to abort her unborn child is a \u2018liberty\u2019 in the absolute sense; or even whether it is a liberty of great importance to many women. Of course it is both. The issue is whether it is a liberty protected by the Constitution of the United States. I am sure it is not,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Justice Scalia\u2019s commitment to truth and serving the common good is an example for all lay Catholics to follow, wrote Bishop Conley.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, Catholics do not need to agree with every decision or viewpoint Antonin Scalia offered,\u201d he said. \u201cBut like Justice Scalia did, all Catholics have an obligation to form their consciences according to the teaching of the Church, and to commit themselves to serving the common and public good.\u201d
\n\u00a0
\n\u201cIn the face of great injustices, he offered himself \u2013 his intellect, his energies, and his judgment \u2013 for the sake of the common good. Every Catholic is called to imitate Scalia\u2019s commitment to religious liberty, the family, and the unborn,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike Justice Scalia, each one of us is called to seek justice and truth. We are called to support the right to life and the dignity of the human person. We are called to actively engage in public and political life, not in spite of our faith, but because of it.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
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Washington D.C., Feb 15, 2016 \/ 04:54 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was a man of deep Catholic faith who saw his work through the eyes of vocation, said those who knew him.<\/p>\n
“I think he’s an excellent ex…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\n
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