By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS Staff Writer In the search for an indication of where she might stand on the abortion and homosexual marriage issue, Sonia Sotomayor, the woman named as a possible replacement for retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter, is being described as a “cultural” Catholic who rarely attends Mass and does not belong to a parish. According to a report by The New York Times, interviews with more than a dozen of Sotomayor’s friends, said they had never heard her talk about her faith, and had no recollection of her ever going to Mass or belonging to a parish. “She currently does not belong to a particular parish or church," said a White House spokesman, "but she attends church with family and friends for important occasions.” Judge Sotomayor married her boyfriend from high school, Kevin E. Noonan, in a small chapel at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City in the summer of 1976, after both graduated from college, according to a friend of Judge Sotomayor. But within seven years they were divorced, and it is not known whether she obtained a marriage annulment from the church. She has not remarried and has no children. Sotomayor’s inactive status may prove significant when it comes to ruling on controversial issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. According to a Gallup poll released in March, 52 percent of Catholics who do not attend church regularly say abortion is morally acceptable, compared to only 24 percent of churchgoing Catholics. Gallup also found that 61 percent of non-churchgoing Catholics believed same-sex relationships were morally acceptable, compared with only 44 percent of churchgoers.   However, as a Hispanic Catholic, Sotomayor is part of the church’s most vibrant and growing wing. Hispanic Catholics, studies show, are more liberal than white Catholics on some social and economic issues, like immigration and health care reform, but more conservative on homosexuality and abortion. Practicing Catholics who are currently on the bench include Justice Antonin Scalia, who son is a Catholic priest, Justice Thomas, an African-American convert who once went to seminary, left the church for 28 years and rejoined in the mid-1990s, as well as Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. Justice Anthony Kennedy, also a Catholic, is described as a “country club Republican” who often sides with the conservatives on the bench, although not always. For instance, he wrote two decisions favoring equal rights for gay people. The Rev. Joseph A. O’Hare, a Jesuit priest and the former president of Fordham University,  who knew Sotomayor when they both served on the New York City Campaign Finance Board in the 1980’s, said he didn’t think Sotomayor would “fit in” with Chief Justice Roberts or Scalia. “I think they’re very different Catholics,” he said. © All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly/Women of Grace. http://www.womenofgrace.com