It would have once been unthinkable, but Boris Johnson’s conversion to Catholicism shows how far we’ve come
There’s a quip that both Boris Johnson and David Cameron have used – one that shows they are aware of the pitfalls of signing up to a specific religion in secular Britain while also wanting to keep co-religionists on side. Both have said that their Christian faith is a bit like the signal for Magic FM in the Chilterns: it comes and goes. But while Cameron the Christian is a typical nominal Anglican – church is for hatching, matching and dispatching, Christmas and Remembrance Sunday – Johnson’s involvement with religion has been far more topsy-turvy and dramatic. Who would have thought, when he became prime minister in 2019, that he would stop the balancing act and instead become a standard bearer for Roman Catholicism as the first occupant of No 10 to practise the religion?
Johnson’s religious life has been as chequered as his political career. Baptised as a baby into the Roman Catholic faith of his mother, Charlotte Johnson Wahl, he veered off at Eton into Anglicanism and was confirmed into the Church of England. Little is known of Johnson’s faith in the years that followed, apart from that Chilterns gag: he was busy editing the Spectator, becoming an MP, performing tripwire stunts as mayor of London, and developing a reputation for a rackety private life. But now the radio signal seems to be coming through loud and clear, although it’s been retuned to the old ways – a sort of religious equivalent of rediscovering the Home Service. He’s back in the Catholic fold.
