Q: What was Newt Gingrich's religious affiliation before his recent conversion to Catholicism?
-- David Matheny, Rome
A: Gingrich was Lutheran growing up, but was baptized at St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans when he was a graduate student at Tulane in the late 1960s. He said he was Southern Baptist until he converted to Catholicism in 2009, nine years after marrying Callista Bisek, a lifelong Catholic and a longtime member of the choir at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. Gingrich began studying the catechism of the Catholic Church under Monsignor Walter Rossi in 2008 and was "received into the church in March of 2009 in a beautiful Mass at St. Joseph's on Capitol Hill," he wrote in an article titled "Why I Became Catholic" for the National Catholic Register.
Q: Does the health department inspect the snack bars in movie theaters as they do at restaurants and other eating establishments? We recently went to the movies, and one employee was serving food and handling the money without gloves.
-- Mary Ann Duffy, Lawrenceville
A: Yes, the Georgia Department of Public Health, working with local county health departments, regulates all establishments where food is consumed, on or off the premises, a Department of Public Health spokeswoman wrote Q&A on the News in an email. This link -- health.state.ga.us/pdfs/environmental/Misc/contactinformation.pdf -- provides staff and contact information for county Environmental Health offices and district directors in Georgia.
Andy Johnston wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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