Roman Catholics, outside of Gene Roddenberry's religion-free vision of the future, often seem to end up in space. In the Speaker for the Dead series, they were

Roman Catholics, outside of Gene Roddenberry's religion-free vision of the future, often seem to end up in space. In the Speaker for the Dead series, they were attempting to convert a whole other species. In Altered Carbon, they were still on spaceships trying to catch up to the distant stars since they weren't allowed to use subspace transmission (needlecasting) to transfer their consciousness (because of issues with their souls). In either scenario, you could make the case that they'd have a vested interest in being the first or best at creating interstellar space travel.