Why are big shot Italo-Americans such effete conservatives ?

As a free-thinking democratic socialist I can only judge this formidable Justice Scalia by quite " progressive " standards. On some points of law I found him curiously " right " in the sense of being the opposite of wrong. Coming from a Catholic background myself, I do see religious expression as being indeed " persecuted " by the state. There was a " Prayer on the Wall " controversy at Cranston High School West in Rhode Island championed by the brazen New Atheism. I thought it very illiberal even to make an issue of it.Separation of church and state for many " progressive " thinkers simply means separation of the AUTHORITY of church and the state. Not every crime is " sin ". And not every " sin " should be a crime.
ACLU lawyers-it seems- are too eager to make the state actively hostile to religious expression. That was the biggest mistake of the old Soviet Union- next to the suppression of internal democracy.
FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE must always and everywhere be respected.
But I also wonder why so many Italo-American Catholics -highly educated by church or state-become such effete conservatives.
The post war Italian cinema - " the new realism " - pictured Catholics and communists in a relationship of peaceful co-existence." La Dolce Vita " demanded it.

Jesus has left the building - scene from " La Dolce Vita "