File this under the “Really?” column.  David Gibson over at Politics Daily reports President Obama’s surprising devotion to Mary, Help of Christians. 

Somehow this slipped past the Disputations filter, but during her vacation in Spain in August, First Lady Michelle Obama revealed that her husband–a.k.a. President Obama–“always carries a picture of Mary Help of Christians in his wallet.”

Mary Help of Christians is the patroness of the Salesian order of priests and nuns, and during an Aug. 13 visit to the Spanish city of Ronda with her daughter, Sasha, the first lady stopped at the Salesian community there. 

According to the Salesian news service, she told the priest in charge that her husband “always carries with him a photograph with an image of Mary Help of Christians, to whom, those present reported, the first family of the United States has great devotion.”

Read the rest here.  But this shouldn’t be surprising or offensive to anyone with half a brain.  For one thing, Obama is Christian.  And Mary, well, helps Christians through her prayers and examples.  Anyway, I give this story a few days before people start pouncing on it as evidence of his…something or other. 

The Rev. James Martin, S.J., is a Jesuit priest, author, editor at large at America and founder of Outreach.