I recall reading, though I cannot now recall the source, that there was evidence Shakespeare’s father was a crypto-Catholic.
I question this statement by Achorn: “All this, of course, must seem anathema to academics who wish to embrace Shakespeare as the spokesman of secular modernity.”
The Renaissance (and modern humanism) began in Italy, among Catholics. I don’t see how if Shakespeare was Catholic that would have prevented him from being as secular as his C of E friends. I think in that regard there proably was little difference between the two religions in sixteenth century England.
There is nothing un-Catholic about Renaissance, which was, after all, deeply religious. Modern humanism was a parasitic philosophical movement that exploited the Renaisance for its own satanic ends.
I can see a connection between Shakespeare and Catholic Renaissance, but to connect him to the likes of Rousseau, Voltaire and Diderot is a long stretch.