This reminds me of a Hungarian customer I once had, who informed me that it was Hungarians who first invented the telephone; and that Tesla got some of his ideas from a Hungarian assistant. etc. etc.
Catholicism was definitely helpful; but, there is a reason it is called the "Protestant" work ethic.
That is an ignorant simile. The "Protestant" work ethic was an anti-Irish insult used by the British to rationalize and justify their superior political and economic position. It had nothing to do with the merits of the Catholic Church