Contrary to reports, Harriet Miers was not raised as a Catholic

Published: 2005-10-21

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Harriet Miers was not raised as a Catholic. Catholic Church records and the White House both refute what has become a boilerplate part of discussions about Miers, the White House general counsel and nominee for the Supreme Court. News stories, commentaries and editorials nationwide have repeated the description that Miers was brought up Catholic but now attends an evangelical Protestant church. However, according to White House spokeswoman Maria Tamburri, "Harriet Miers did not grow up Catholic." When news reports first quoted the nominee's acquaintances as saying she had been raised a Catholic before joining an evangelical Protestant church in 1979, the editor of the Texas Catholic, newspaper of the Dallas Diocese, began checking records of baptisms and other sacraments. "The Diocese of Dallas has no record of Harriet Miers or her immediate family ever having been a member of the Catholic Church," said Deacon Bronson Havard, spokesman for the Diocese of Dallas and editor of the newspaper. "We have checked all known sacramental records."

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