I always assumed he was Catholic for a variety of reasons. I hope he is NOT around in Season Three. He was cloying and annoying!

I forgot to mention the sanctuary doesn't look Catholic either,the tabernacle isn't right and there is a second communion rail closer to the altar which the Episcopalians have in their churches. Is the show using an Episcopal church pretending its Catholic? Remember this is supposed to be prevatican 2.
I agree the priest character isn't very good in his approaches to the Faith. He is annoying. Get it right like everything else in the show.

Hi pjk!
I was raised a Catholic, and was very young when Vatican II made many changes to many Catholic practices. The Vatican II Council met in 1962.
The Catholic Church was beginning to make these changes when we saw Fr. Gill in Episode 13. This may explain the confusion with regard to the costumes/set.

He is definitely a Catholic priest.

I do agree, the writers have to expand his character more. He just seems to appear to bother Peggy.
I like the character, he just needs better storylines.

Hi 60s Child !
Thanks for the comments.
After Vatican 2 ended in1967, most changes didn't start until then or 1969 when Paul VI introduced the Novus Ordo rite. This is what makes me wonder if the shows location scout chose this church which sort of looks like a Catholic one would have at quick glance but its missing the obvious touches. Perhaps they couldn't get permission to use a Catholic church? I would love to know the answer or see the corrections made on the set.

I will look forward to Fr.Gill's character development. I remember the scene at Peggy's family's house and he made up his own form of table Grace and her mom replied"That was nice Father,now will you say Grace please?" I think he will go far out or leave the priesthood eventually; thats my guess. The writing has many interesting twists so lets see.

i thought Catholics were the only ones who do confessional? remember the scene where jealous Anita tattle-tells on Peggy via confession?

but then there's the scene where creative is brainstorming for the popscile account and somebody says something about it being a Catholic thing [mom breaking the popsciles in half and handing them out like Jesus breaking the bread and handing it to the needy] but Peggy in a corrective tone says "it's Christian" but admits that "the Catholic church knows how to sell things."

do we know what ethnicity Peggy is? like Sal's probably Catholic since he's Italian?

being Catholic would just Peggy another contrast to Pete's wasp of wife.

that's supossed to be:

being Catholic would just *give* Peggy another contrast

I agree Peggy's Catholism gives her another contrast. Interesting contrast on the Church knowing how to sell things. I think we will see more charcter development in Peggy.

Fr. Gill is Catholic. Nobody else goes to Rome for religious training. For him it would be like going to West Point to become an Army officer.

Peggy Olson - probably a northern German Catholic or Scandanavian.

Are you serious? If he were Protestant he'd be banging girls left and right or he'd be married. This is SO much a Catholic Priest and on this subject there is NO DOUBT. As Ritt stated, all those references to 'the Holy Father', was Pope John XXIII. No question, RC all the way.

elle-elle - You're right about the confession. While Episcopalians do a group confessional prayer in the middle of the Eucharist, we do not "confess" to our priest like Catholics do.

pjk - It's quite possible that they used a real Episcopal church for those scenes or as a reference and made the mistakes with the communion rail. It seems like an odd thing to make a mistake with, though - pretty specific but important details. Interesting idea about the crew not being "allowed" to film in a Catholic church. Hmmm....

I thought Peggy was catholic because her last name is Olson which sounds Irish to me.

Olson is Swedish. Also regarding Peggy saying "it's Christian" I think that was her way of making the ad more broad in its appeal and not just a Catholic thing. There were still a lot of prejudices against Catholics so I think she didn't want the ad to be pidgeon holed as such and wanted to make it more general.