As a Roman Catholic, is Rick Santorum a real Christian?

I just read this story in today's Lansing State Journal about how Rick Santorum is benefiting from being mis-identified as an evangelical Christian when he is really a Roman Catholic.  

That really brings back memories from my childhood in the sixties when John Kennedy ran for president and all the concern that existed because he was a Catholic.  I remember literature circulating at that time in northern Michigan that warned the Pope would move into the White House if Kennedy was elected.  

In my large extended family, these concerns were actually talked about.  Keep in mind that this was during a period when the polarization between Catholics and others was wide and had high walls around it.  As a Missouri Synod Lutheran, I would never touch a Rosary, nor would I step into a Catholic church.  During Lent in Bay City, you couldn't go to a restaurant and order something with meat, it was all fish.

Those attitudes have changed.  When I was an in-prison volunteer with Prison Fellowship, I worked with several Catholic priests.  They confessed strongly that the only way to God was through Jesus Christ.  That was a real ka-ching.  

Santorum seems pretty sincere.  I'm impressed.  I'm wondering, is he being sincere or is this just part of the political theater that happens every four years?