INDEED.
WELL PUT and accurate from my experiences and observations as well.
I was also brought up in a heavily Catholic area.
This isn’t a matter of only one or two Catholic churches in town, like might be in the south, but a Catholic Church about every mile and a half from each other, all with sizable congregations, across the whole city and suburbs. Lots of Irish, Italians, and Pollacks, which should tell you something about the mindset.
Come Christmas and Easter, it was standing room only if you weren’t early.
These were not odd isolated people who thought like this. It was the VAST majority of a large population.