I'm not drunk enough to read/watch Cruz's questioning, but part of what makes this whole ordeal a bit of a head scratch-er is the detail that a healthy chunk of Amy Coney Barrett's scholarship either asserts or assumes that Catholic judges may not be involved in death penalty cases.  That's not exactly a part of Catholic identity +Chaput and self-claimed "orthodox" Catholics are particularly protective or sensitive of; rather they're completely comfortable, even proud of embracing that facet of the culture of death.