The Gavin Newsom Files | Part 2

Part 2. The Ongoing Scandal of Newsom’s “Rebel” Catholicism

Slightly to his credit, Gavin Newsom does not exactly present himself as a “devout” or “faithful” Catholic. In this respect, he could be considered more honest – with the public and himself – than Nancy Pelosi or Joe Biden. 

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Nonetheless, despite his conflicts with Catholicism, Newsom continues to call himself Catholic and identify with the Church in various ways. This identity has been part of his image during a decades-long political career, even though it has become increasingly scandalous to maintain.  

In keeping with his often brash and unapologetic persona, Newsom has described himself as a “rebel” toward the Church. Yet in the same 2008 interview (his most extensive public discussion of religion), he said he had “tremendous admiration for the Church and very strong faith.” 

Far from being troubled by the contradiction between these statements, Newsom has appeared to enjoy the inconsistency and even take pride in it.

Raised in the Church and educated by Catholic institutions, he credits the Jesuit-run Santa Clara University for giving him an “independence of thinking” and “confidence to question authority,” which he acknowledged “often times … gets in the way of orthodoxy.” 

It is reasonable to wonder how much “independence of thinking” was involved in Newsom’s choice to reject several Church teachings – which are increasingly countercultural in today’s world – and embrace the popular orthodoxy of modern liberalism.

Even while touting his supposed independence of mind, Newsom said in the same interview that he was a typical “progressive politician” – “you know, stem cell and gay marriage, pro-choice.” 

After graduating college in 1989, he pursued a business career for much of the 1990s, before entering politics as a member of San Francisco’s municipal legislature in 1998. He became the city’s mayor in 2004, California’s lieutenant governor in 2011 (a role reported to have “few duties”), and governor in 2019. 

Married in the Catholic Church in a 2001 ceremony, Newsom first made national headlines during 2004 – leading a campaign against the authentic definition of marriage, in which he issued illegal marriage licenses to same-sex couples. 

During this controversy, he called himself a “practicing Catholic” and said he was “advancing the bond of love and monogamy.” Scripture and Tradition identify unnatural sexual acts as “sins that cry to heaven for vengeance.”

As the issue was debated, Newsom was asked by a Protestant minister whether he accepted the Bible as “the authoritative word of God.” The mayor avoided answering, then said: “I guess I do.”

Over time, Newsom’s claim to be a “practicing Catholic” became harder to maintain, with his 2006 divorce and 2008 remarriage in a ceremony led by New Age teacher Carol Simone. 

In an interview that year, the San Francisco mayor acknowledged his dissent from Catholic teaching and said he didn’t “go to church that often.” 

However, this was the same interview in which Newsom professed to have “tremendous admiration for the Church and very strong faith … an incredibly strong sense of faith that is perennial: day in and day out, every day of my life.”  

Responding to a question that assumed he was still part of the Catholic Church (“What keeps you there?,” the interviewer asked), the mayor claimed Catholicism gave him “a strong connection to a greater purpose, and to sort of a higher being.” 

Regardless, the self-proclaimed “Irish-Catholic rebel” continued his political crusade to redefine marriage. In May 2008, during a court battle over same-sex marriage, he famously said: 

“As California goes, so goes the rest of the nation. It’s inevitable. This door’s wide open now. It’s going to happen, whether you like it or not.”

Apparently still identifying with the Church, Newsom was seen receiving the Eucharist at a relative’s 2010 funeral.

Recent media reports still label Newsom as Catholic, and even a “practicing Catholic,” though it’s unclear whether he still uses the “practicing” label himself. His most recent direct comment on the subject seems to have been in 2019, when he told a Canadian politician he was Catholic. 

He also made a prominent 2019 visit to El Salvador, kneeling to pray at St. Oscar Romero’s tomb as reporters took photographs. According to an Associated Press report, Newsom said the event “brought full circle his Catholic upbringing and some of his earliest political awakenings.”

In February 2022, when asked about spirituality, Newsom used the Church’s language of “faith and works,” and the interviewer identified him as Catholic. Another writer said in May 2022 that Newsom “describes himself as a practicing Catholic,” though it was unclear whether this was Newsom’s current self-description or a reference to older statements. 

Overall, the governor currently seems content with this lack of clarity. In June 2023, the National Catholic Register reported: “Newsom’s office did not respond to inquiries about his current involvement in and relationship to the Church.”

In 2024, he attended a Vatican summit on climate change alongside 23 other governors and mayors from around the world. Newsom met Pope Francis at the event, and told journalists that the Pope had praised his work against the death penalty in California. 

The LA Times’ coverage of the event again described Newsom as a Catholic, while noting his estrangement from “religious doctrine” and his attendance at the Glide Memorial Church – a non-denominational San Francisco congregation that calls itself a “center for social justice.”

Sadly, it seems one of Gavin Newsom’s most shocking acts occurred during the period when he still identified himself as a “practicing Catholic.” 

Based on his own later statements to the New Yorker magazine, it appears Newsom helped his mother commit suicide in 2002:  

“She left me a message, because I was too busy: ‘Hope you’re well. Next Wednesday will be the last day for me. Hope you can make it’,” Newsom told the magazine. 

“The night before we gave her the drugs, I cooked her dinner, hard-boiled eggs, and she told me, ‘Get out of politics.’ She was worried about the stress on me.”

Newsom, Who May Have Helped His Own Mother Commit Assisted Suicide, Streamlines Process For Californians https://t.co/2vGu196t7v pic.twitter.com/DdWXQupV7w

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) October 7, 2021

If Newsom’s account of his mother’s suicide is accurate, his involvement (“we gave her the drugs”) would be among the gravest possible sins – on several fronts, including the dignity of all human life, the proper honor due to parents, and the duty to never support or encourage the immoral choices of others. 

This last point raises the issue of exactly what the Church means by “scandal.” The precise moral meaning of this term is crucial to understand how far Governor Newsom has gone astray, while leading others in the same direction. 

The word “scandal” has different senses. In popular language, it may refer to something that is simply shocking or embarrassing. But the word has a more precise sense, employed in Catholic theology. 

“Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church states. 

“The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor’s tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death. Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense.”

Supporting and assisting another person in suicide is certainly scandalous in this sense. For that matter, so is the act of publicizing it to a magazine with no evident sense of remorse. 

While the New Yorker profile made it clear that Newsom found the memory of his mother’s suicide to be painful, there was no indication he felt a sense of moral regret for his involvement. 

Unfortunately, none of this is unique in Newsom’s history. Much of his political career has been occupied with actions that must be deemed scandalous in the sense of drawing others into sin. This is especially clear when we consider his record on abortion.

Read Part 3 here.

About the Author: Benjamin Mann is a Byzantine Catholic and has written for several publications including Catholic News Agency, Catholic Exchange, and Real Clear Religion.

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