House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan speaking at CPAC 2011 in Washington, D.C. RNS photo by Gage Skidmore/courtesy Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/5446900144/)

Republican congressman Paul Ryan is a leading light in the GOP, especially on budgetary issues, but his Catholic cred has come under intense scrutiny given his somewhat convoluted efforts to square his libertarian credo with church teaching. And now he has gone and said gay adoption is okay!

One churchman who has a strong relationship with Ryan is New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who had previously been archbishop of Milwaukee, where he developed a personal friendship with the Wisconsin congressman.

But I wonder if Ryan has now gone too far even for His Eminence. As Michael Scherer reports in this week’s Time, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough recently engaged in some beer diplomacy with Ryan at a drink at a K Street restaurant to discussion the deficit reduction standoff.

“He’s a Minnesota Irish Catholic guy, and I’m a Wisconsin Irish Catholic guy,” Ryan told Scherer. “It quickly dawned on me that we can work together.”

“I ended up getting some lager I’d never heard of,” Ryan said.

Miller Lite photo courtesy http://www.millerlite.com

“My first pastoral letter’s gonna be a condemnation of light beer and instant mashed potatoes – I hate those two things.”