"American" or "Catholic"

A few days ago, commenting on a Time magazine story, "God or Country?", I said I was "sad" "to learn that, among Catholics, nearly two-thirds of those polled said they are 'Americans first' (and not 'Catholics first')."   In response, MOJ-friend and philosopher John O'Callaghan writes:

I am confused by . . . your recent post.  You make a very good point in the body of the post about Church and state.  But then your sadness confuses me because the ambiguity of it against the background of your point.  Are you sad because those two-thirds should have said "Catholic first?"  Or are you said because they didn't realize the silliness of the question?

. . .  A judgment of first on these matters seems to require a common category.  "Who came in first" requires at least tacit reference to a category that admits of ranking in terms of first, second, third, etc.  Are we talking about a footrace, or a national championship football season?  Did Rick come in first or the Fighting Irish?  How answer such a question?

Now even when talking only about political regimes, the question seems to make little sense.  Are you a citizen of South Bend first, or a citizen of the United States.  Since we are dealing with nested political categories, and not a common one here, it would be a mistake to accept the coherence of the question.

But then when we turn to the question of the Church or the political community first, we don't even have a common category at any level, or so it seems to me, unless it is a most general level of "community," which doesn't admit of sufficient specificity to know how to answer the question.  Are you a father first, a team member, a fan, a Catholic, or a citizen?  If the Church is a political community like a nation state, then I suppose the question might be coherent.  Or if the nation state is a church then I suppose the question might be coherent.  But what if, as I think is the case, the Church is not a nation state and the nation state is not a Church?  Isn't the question incoherent?  And wouldn't we be better served by educating members of the nation state and members of the Church on just why it is incoherent?