Last week, news emerged that the Christian church People of Praise had wiped numerous references to Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett from their website after her name came up in consideration for a seat on the court—both back in 2017, as well as prior to her current nomination.
The Guardian reports that Amy Coney Barrett actually lived in the home of one of the founders of the People of Praise, Keith Ranaghan, while she was a law student at Notre Dame. Public records show that Barrett’s husband, Jesse apparently also lived in the home in the years before the couple’s 1999 marriage. In the past, Barrett has said she met her now-husband while in law school, but had not provided any further details on how the two met, although records show that they would not be the only couple to have gotten married after periods of living in the Ranaghan home.
Dorothy Ranaghan, the wife of People of Praise cofounder Kevin Ranaghan, confirmed to the Guardian that Amy Barrett had lived in their home.
Asked to describe the experience, she said: “Let’s just say it was one of the better experiences of our life. She is just a gem. But I don’t feel comfortable talking right now.”
I can’t exactly explain it, but there is something deeply chilling about her describing Barrett living with them as “one of the better experiences of our life.” Not only is that compliment unnecessarily intense, but it’s also just unsettling to hear coming from the wife of a man who founded a church where wives were allegedly “expected to obey their husband’s wishes in all matters.”