The Gavin Newsom Files | Part 5

Part 5. Addressing the Newsom Scandal: A Task For the Whole Church

As his national profile grew in the run-up to the 2024 election, an essay in the American Spectator asked: “Will Gavin Newsom Renounce His Catholicism?” The article suggested an open renunciation of the Faith might be the more honest path for Newsom. 

Nonetheless, author Ellie Gardey Holmes also reflected: 

“One can pray that Gavin Newsom still clings to the Catholic faith in some small way, offering a speck of hope that he could one day repent of all he’s done against the Church.” 

Indeed – we do not know the true state of Governor Newsom’s soul.

Realistically, however, the question posed by Gardey’s article is easy to answer. Will California’s governor renounce Catholicism? Almost certainly not.

While it might be the more honest choice, it would also be political suicide. 

Gavin Newsom is a shrewd and ambitious politician. By his own account, he is “obsessed” with data and statistics. Even if Newsom wanted to openly reject Catholicism, he would probably prefer not to alienate potential voters by doing so.

Besides, Newsom has spent decades living out a conflicted and contradictory relationship to the Catholic Church. He apparently sees no need to resolve the conflict – either by embracing orthodoxy, or by acknowledging a decisive departure. 

Rather than renounce his professed Catholicism, the leading Democrat will probably take one of two paths:

First, Newsom could continue the approach he has pursued since becoming governor in 2019. Since then he has been quieter about religion, and taken steps bound to outrage committed Christians – especially the Bible-quoting abortion ads. Yet he still calls himself Catholic when asked, associates himself with St. Oscar Romero, and talks about a life of “faith and works.”

In California, this ambiguous approach seems to work. So Newsom may stay on this course – soft-pedaling a vaguely Catholic image, while avoiding the questions that a stronger and more direct identification with Catholicism would provoke.  

But there is another possibility: Newsom might try to revive his earlier persona as a self-described “practicing Catholic.” 

With help from sympathetic media, he might pull this off – especially given the Church’s state of disorientation, and the Vatican’s emphasis on a loosely-defined “inclusiveness” in recent years. 

The governor has tried before to paint himself as the victim of an insufficiently “forgiving” Church. Eventually, he may announce that he feels welcome again – perhaps with reference to the so-called “Church of Pope Francis” that some commentators fantasized about during the last papacy. 

Newsom may have been setting the stage for such a move in May 2024, when he publicized details of a personal interaction he claimed to have had with Pope Francis.

According to Newsom – who was visiting the Vatican for a summit on climate change – Pope Francis “immediately brought up the issue of the death penalty” with him, and said “how proud he was of the work we’re doing in California” for its abolition. 

Bizarrely, the US Bishops’ own Catholic News Service even published a puff piece on Newsom’s papal meeting. The CNS report highlighted Pope Francis’s purported praise for the governor’s death penalty moratorium, without mentioning anything about Newsom’s many public betrayals of the Faith.

This 2024 meeting with Pope Francis was Newsom’s clearest gesture toward Catholic identity since his 2019 appearance at St. Romero’s tomb. Speaking to the LA Times about his Vatican trip, Newsom even claimed to be inspired by the “spirit of St. Francis.” 

After Pope Francis’s death in April 2025, Newsom released an over-the-top statement of politically-charged praise for the late pontiff. In local news coverage of the comments, Newsom was again described as a self-identified Catholic. 

In May, the governor issued a similarly sanctimonious press release to celebrate the election of Pope Leo XIV. 

Far from renouncing the Faith, Newsom now seems to be seeking a closer identification with it in the public eye. It would not be surprising to see him take up again the “practicing Catholic” label of his early political career, perhaps in the lead-up to his expected presidential run. 

If Newsom were to declare a return to the Church on his own terms, he would effectively be daring the bishops to contradict him. Based on past precedents, he might expect few – if any – US bishops to speak out on his offenses against the faith. 

If Gavin Newsom revives his claim to be a “practicing Catholic,” the scandal and the need for action will be obvious. 

However, the existing state of affairs is already scandalous and should be addressed. 

Although Newsom has downplayed religion since 2020, his prior actions created a persona that has persisted. He continues to be referred to as a Catholic, and even a practicing one, in mainstream media reports.

Whether or not he currently makes these claims about his religion, such descriptions of California’s governor will be repeated in the press as his national profile grows. 

The real question now is not whether Gavin Newsom will formally renounce Catholicism, but whether Catholicism will find the courage to renounce Gavin Newsom. 

At times, it may be difficult for bishops to know when they should publicly rebuke a politician. On this question, there are probably easier and harder cases. 

Gavin Newsom’s case is not a hard one. If he has not merited a direct and public rebuke from his local bishop – or bishops in other states, such as those targeted by his abortion ads – then it is hard to imagine who would or could. 

In researching this report, we found older mentions of Newsom being criticized by Catholic clergy for his campaign to redefine marriage. But our research turned up no instance of a bishop speaking out against his more aggressive recent actions, such as the nationwide facilitation of abortion. 

The California Catholic Conference works in coordination with the state’s bishops and can be understood as a voice for the local church on public policy. Although this lay conference condemned Newsom’s abortion billboard campaign, it is disappointing that no bishop spoke out, since the ads twisted Scripture to promote extremely grave errors of faith and morals.

Moreover, the California Catholic Conference made its own significant error by claiming the ads were “nothing more than a political stunt by our governor.” 

As our analysis above indicates, California’s governor engaged in far more than a political stunt: he became an accomplice in abortion, an act whose canonical penalty is the same as that imposed for directly obtaining an abortion oneself. This fact was overlooked by the California Catholic Conference, and not pointed out afterwards by any bishop. 

With Newsom continuing to “fight like hell” for abortion, it is not too late for bishops – in California and other states affected by his anti-life activism – to address the issue. 

The same is true on the issue of transgender medical abuse – which is likewise not legitimate health care, and causes grave scandal when promoted by a professedly Catholic politician. 

In addressing the scandal of Gavin Newsom’s “rebel” Catholicism, the clergy and laity have distinct yet complementary duties. 

The Church teaches that laypersons have a unique responsibility for bringing the Gospel into society, by influencing “the mentality, customs, laws, and structures of the community” under the Kingship of Christ. 

If we take this responsibility seriously, it is clear we cannot allow present-day California to become “America’s Coming Attraction.” 

Gavin Newsom should be repudiated by the American people, and especially by Catholics – just as his fellow San Francisco radical Kamala Harris was in 2024. 

Abortion, androgyny, and anarchy must not become the future of our country. Every Catholic layperson has a duty to help prevent such destruction. 

Meanwhile, the Catholic bishops and their clergy have a duty to teach, govern, and sanctify the People of God. As such, they are properly responsible for ensuring that a man like Gavin Newsom is not a living preview of the Catholic Church’s future in America. 

The fact is, there are politicians who must be religiously corrected in defense of the Faith. When a professedly Catholic governor publicly quotes Scripture to promote abortion, this goes beyond the secular sphere and calls for the exercise of apostolic authority. 

When such a man claims to be guided by the “spirit of St. Francis,” as Newsom grotesquely did after his Vatican trip, a true spiritual son of St. Francis should rise up to publicly challenge such nonsense. 

Silence in the face of scandal is bad enough. Positive coverage by the bishops’ news service is even worse.

Certainly Christ’s Church must be inclusive in the way he intended. But the Lord had dreadful words for those who would scandalize his flock and leave them confused between good and evil. 

A man like Gavin Newsom must be stopped from doing further harm to both the Church and the country. May we all live up to our God-given responsibilities.

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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