The Trump–Leo standoff could happen in Australia, though both political and clerical leaders here are much more cautious about church–state relations.
What does it mean to be Catholic in Australian politics today? The clash between Pope Leo and US President Donald Trump and his administration raises this question for Australian Catholics, clergy and laity alike.
Catholics in Australia are politically diverse and, as in the USA, are becoming more prominent on the conservative side. Potentially, this puts many leading Catholics at odds with Leo’s progressive positions on several hot-button issues. However, greater party discipline in Australia and deeply embedded ideological positions among clergy and laity make it most unlikely that Catholic parliamentarians from opposing parties would come together ‘across the aisle’ as happened recently in the US House of Representatives. There the ‘Dignity Act’, a bipartisan immigration proposal that reflects church teaching on migration and the dignity of the person had significant support from Catholic representatives.
The label ‘Catholic’ is often elusive because there are so many shades between being Mass-going and merely having a Catholic school background. For some political leaders, their denominational allegiance is strikingly public, but for others it is not. Peter Dutton, for instance, was surprisingly presented as a Catholic leader in some quarters prior to the 2025 federal election, making it a choice for prime minister between two Catholics, Dutton and Anthony Albanese.
The leading Catholic conservative politicians and active former politicians now include Senator Matt Canavan (Nationals), Barnaby Joyce (One Nation) and Tony Abbott (Liberal). Canavan, who is actively Catholic, leads the Nationals. Joyce, the former Deputy Prime Minister, may soon lead One Nation, and Abbott, a former Prime Minister embedded in the church, will be the federal president of the Liberal Party. We can also include Senator Ralph Babet, the only Clive Palmer party member in the federal parliament, among Catholics in conservative ranks.
Between them, their high-profile conservative policies include climate scepticism, rejection of net zero emissions by 2050, harsh attitudes towards migrants and refugees, assertive militarism in international affairs, and criticism of the place of Muslims and Islam in Australian society. On this combination of issues, they are often at odds with Catholic social teaching and public statements by Catholic agencies and, most importantly, by Popes Francis and Leo. This divergence was certainly evident in the contrasting positions adopted towards climate change by Pope Francis in the encyclical Laudato Si’ and Abbott when he was Prime Minister. The contrasts may not be as extreme as those between Trump and Leo on the Middle East war, but they cannot be dismissed.
Wealthy conservative Catholic families in Australia are active among those supporting and funding these conservative parties and movements, though again the role of the wealthy is less intrusive in Australian politics than in the US, where Catholic billionaires are plentiful. Conservative Catholics are also well represented among senior Australian journalism and media figures.
Is there anything distinctively Catholic about these conservatives? They are certainly part of international conservative movements, such as Jordan Peterson’s Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC), and attached to Christian conservative hubs such as the one created in Hungary under Viktor Orbán. Former Nationals Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson, an Anglican but close to Catholic church leaders, plays a prominent role in ARC. Some, like Abbott, have strong church connections through their interest in advancing classical education in the Catholic school system.
They also share international and local networks with leading clergy. Between them, the bishops of the Sydney archdiocese, for instance, have strong connections not just with conservative political parties like the Liberals and Nationals and movements like ARC, but also conservative church groupings like Opus Dei. Inevitably, the church frequently provides conservative groups with platforms and audiences.
On the progressive side of politics, Catholics are present too, though probably less conspicuously at the federal level. The historic Catholic Labor connections survive, more often within the Right than the Left faction. The most prominent federal figures include Albanese himself, ministers such as Don Farrell, Clare O’Neil and Tony Burke, and state premiers such as Chris Minns (NSW) and Peter Malinauskas (SA).
There is always mutual benefit for Labor governments and Catholic bishops in sharing connections, given government funding of education, social welfare and aged care. Albanese’s ties with Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher stand out, though whether they are merely transactional or based on shared values is unclear. Former Labor senator Jacinta Collins was influential in church circles and became the long-serving director of the National Catholic Education Commission.
The Catholic hierarchy and media have been especially negative towards the Greens, Australia’s most secular party, though many younger Catholics vote Green. Greens’ criticism of funding for Catholic schools especially riles Catholic bishops, though gender and sexuality policy differences play a part too. Yet the Greens rank more highly than any other party on social justice and the environment among many Catholic agencies. Former leaders with a significant Catholic background include Christine Milne. Several of the Community Independents, known as Teals, come from Catholic backgrounds.
Is there anything distinctly Catholic about these progressives? While often more socially conservative than other progressives, Catholics are raised on traditional social justice agendas, such as support for trade unions and workers’ rights, adequate family incomes, and the dignity of the person. Their church connections, sometimes found among MPs, favour groups advocating for the poor and vulnerable such as the St Vincent de Paul Society and Caritas Australia.
Australia is relatively small beer, a middle power in both international politics and universal church affairs. Consequently, it is hard to imagine a globally publicised rift between the Vatican and Australian political and church leaders. Nevertheless, Francis and Leo stand clearly to the left of Australian Catholic conservatives, lay and episcopal, and, on many issues, to the left of Australian Catholic progressive political leaders too. The defining issues would be immigration, migrant and refugee welfare, peacemaking, poverty and wealth distribution, and care for our common home.
Republished from Eureka Street
John Warhurst AO is an Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the Australian National University, and was the Moderator for Massimo Faggioli’s talk. He is chair of Concerned Catholics Canberra Goulburn and a member of the Plenary Council, and a regular columnist with the Canberra Times and Eureka Street.