Sheep for the Kingdom of Heaven

By: Elaine Gilmartin

I was born into a Catholic family. Irish Catholic, to be more specific. That, of course, entailed weekly attendance at Sunday mass, confession every few months whether you had sinned or not, and regarding the Pope as God’s “right-hand man.”

But mine was a critical thinking Irish Catholic family and for that, I thank my parents. My dad grew up Brooklyn poor, GI bill got him to college and then he went to law school, my mom Brooklyn rich, went on to be a school teacher after college, and so they both highly valued education and…