How ‘Catholic’ do we expect ‘Catholic’ political leaders to be?

What do Catholics expect, or can reasonably expect, from ‘Catholic’ politicians in the West? They are very different and range from conservatives like US Vice-President, J.D. Vance, to progressives, from strictly orthodox adherents to so-called cultural Catholics.

Examples from Australian politics

Australian politics contains several prominent examples of each type.

The newly re-elected Labor Party prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is on the centre-left. The former Liberal prime minister, Tony Abbott, is a climate sceptic and sits on the board of Fox News. He is also closely involved in the conservative international Alliance for Responsible Citizenship.

Albanese and the 2025 campaign

The recent Australian national election threw greater light on Albanese’s Catholicism.

Derided in some church circles as a ‘cultural’ Catholic he was still well known for his trilogy of beliefs in his rugby league team, his political party, and his church. It is now said that he has ‘strongly re-embraced his Catholic faith’.

He was helped inadvertently by Pope Francis in that the late pope’s death on Easter Monday not only interrupted the Australian election campaign for 24 hours to Albanese’s advantage, but it enabled him to speak convincingly of his faith background.

His Liberal opponent, Peter Dutton, also a low-key Catholic, was unable to match him.

A personal Catholic identity

Albanese, who was educated at St Mary’s Cathedral School in Sydney, spoke of his family background and the staunch Catholic faith of his single mother.

He was at Francis’ local memorial service in the cathedral and later attended the inaugural Mass of Pope Leo in Rome and met the new pontiff for 45 minutes.

Earlier, the Australian Governor-General had attended Pope Francis’ funeral. Both events were much publicised in Australia.

Catholic schools and church ties

Albanese’s faith status may help in dealings with Australia’s powerful Catholic education interests (20% of Australian children are educated in Catholic schools).

He also seems on good terms with the Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, with whom he is frequently photographed. But Albanese and the conservative archbishop differ on many Catholic orthodoxies.

Progressive politics, traditional faith

Like most Australians, Albanese is socially progressive: pro-same sex marriage and pro-voluntary assisted dying.

These differences will not be mended.

Social justice and Catholic tradition

Albanese can call on his social justice roots in the Catholic tradition, because it is also the labour movement tradition in Australia.

But while the pro-choice Albanese swears that his religion does not influence his politics, some critics, such as Barney Schwartz in The Age in Melbourne want more.

A broad church of convictions

Schwartz rightly points out that faith inevitably shapes the work of politicians because it shapes their convictions and values.

But he fails to take into account that modern faith is expansive and inclusive and that Catholicism is now a broad church.

Modern Catholic politicians will not only be very different from one another but often very different from their church leaders.

• John Warhurst AO is a director of the Australasian Catholic Coalition for Church Reform and was the Founding Chair of Concerned Catholics Canberra Goulburn. He is an experienced political scientist, with special interests in public policy, political lobbying, election campaigning and church-state relations. He is Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the Australian National University in Canberra. John is a delegate from the Archdiocese of Canberra-Goulburn for the Plenary Council 2020. He recently served on the Governance Review Project Team for the ACBC and CRA. He has served on boards for Caritas Australia (National Council), Marist 180, Catholic Social Services Australia and the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council. He is a former president of the Australian Republican Movement and a regular contributor to Eureka Street magazine and the Canberra Times. John is also published regularly in other major metropolitan daily newspapers and media platforms, including the ABC.
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