Pynchon and Catholicism

[John Bailey]

I recently observed that several writers whose prose style I've been
admiring were raised Catholic. First it was Gerald Murnane, then
Rachel Cusk, and of course I recalled that Pynchon was raised (half)
Catholic himself. What these very different writers have in common, it
seems, is a love of baroque literacy, a willingness to tie their
sentences up in quite sadomasochistic knots, a hovering weirdness that
puts them at odds with much of the literary establishment, and a few
other things I can't quite nail.
Some quick searches and yep, other authors that spring to mind as
sharing these qualities turn out to have been raised Catholic: Cormac
McCarthy, Don DeLillo, Joyce Carol Oates, George Saunders. That's a
diverse list! But speaking as someone who was raised Catholic (though
long out of that club thanks) I find it relatively easy to predict if
a writer has the same background.
Obviously a lot has been written on the influence of Judaism on Jewish
writers, but I wonder if other strains of Christianity also have a
less obvious impact on the styles of writers raised therein.