Soccer, Politics And The Cultural Catholicism Of UK’s New Prime Minister
Catholic life in the Democratic Party changed forever on Sept. 13, 1984, when the late Gov. Mario Cuomo of New York delivered his “Religious Belief and Public Morality” lecture for the University of Notre Dame’s Department of Theology.
This took place during an era defined by debates about abortion, but the equation used in Cuomo’s address — “personally opposed, but” — has since been applied since then by Catholic progressives to almost every controversial issue in politics.
The big question in this week’s “Crossroads” podcast is whether the U.K.’s new prime minister can be described as a “Cuomo Catholic,” or whether he has already veered further to the doctrinal left. A report in The New York Times on this topic offered this double-decker headline, offering quite a bit of depth in the second line:
Burnham Set to Become Britain’s First Openly Roman Catholic Prime Minister
Andy Burnham has spoken of Catholicism as part of his cultural identity rather than as a fervent religious faith.
In that story, the Times quoted the former altar boy using some remarkably candid, and very British, images to describe the worldview that defines his life and work, stressing soccer, politics and then, finally, his own take on faith.
In a 2009 interview with The Guardian, Mr. Burnham said: “Three things are important in my life, apart from family. Everton F.C., the Labour Party and the Catholic church — in that order.” … “The reason I say that is, it all comes back to cultural identity,” he added.
After meeting Pope Francis at the Vatican with other regional leaders in 2023, Mr. Burnham told another British newspaper, The Telegraph: “Even though I’m not a Catholic in that full sense of the word, I felt the magnetic pull of the Vatican.”
He likened his religious identity to following a soccer club without regularly going to its matches at the stadium: “You’re still an Evertonian; you can stop going to church but you’re still a Catholic.” But he also said that his religious upbringing had shaped his political views: “I was brought up in the belief in Catholic social teaching and that was hugely formative. As I saw it, the closest thing to what I was told there was Labour politics.”
For decades, journalists have almost always elected — with little or no specific logic or background information — to call liberal Catholic Democrats “devout,” “faithful” or simply “active” Catholics. Please see this GetReligion.org research file on the topic.
However, Burnham has long chosen to openly self-identify as a “cultural” Catholic, someone who grew up in the church, attended Catholic schools, yet no longer practices the faith in a conventional manner. When asked to find photographs of Burnham with an Ash Wednesday cross on his forehead, the Grok AI program came up empty.
The political trail blazed by Cuomo at Notre Dame was quite different.
These passages have been carefully parsed for decades:
“As a Catholic, I have accepted certain answers as the right ones for myself and my family, and because I have, they have influenced me in special ways, as Matilda’s husband, as a father of five children, as a son who stood next to his own father’s death bed trying to decide if the tubes and needles no longer served a purpose.
“As a governor, however, I am involved in defining policies that determine other people’s rights in these same areas of life and death. Abortion is one of these issues, and while it is one issue among many, it is one of the most controversial and affects me in a special way as a Catholic public official.”
Stressing that American Catholics have “come of age,” he argued that post-Vatican II Catholic leaders now understand that Catholic politicians have to live and work in the real world. Let’s keep reading:
The parallel I want to draw here is not between or among what we Catholics believe to be moral wrongs. It is in the Catholic response to those wrongs. Church teaching on slavery and abortion is clear. But in the application of those teachings — the exact way we translate them into action, the specific laws we propose, the exact legal sanctions we seek -- there was and is no one, clear, absolute route that the Church says, as a matter of doctrine, we must follow. …
With regard to abortion, the American bishops have had to weigh Catholic moral teaching against the fact of a pluralistic country where our view is in the minority, acknowledging that what is ideally desirable isn’t always feasible, that there can be different political approaches to abortion besides unyielding adherence to an absolute prohibition.
This is in the American-Catholic tradition of political realism. In supporting or opposing specific legislation the Church in this country has never retreated into a moral fundamentalism that will settle for noting less than total acceptance of its views.
But Cuomo kept insisting that, as a Catholic, he accepted the churches teachings and would strive to honor them in his own life. This did not, however, mean that he could not — in the political arena — make choices that he said represented the views of his voters.
In other words, he was “personally opposed, but ….” Also, in the evolving Vatican II faith, individual Catholics were often told that they needed to “follow their conscience” when making personal decisions about tough issues (such as contraception).
Cuomo seemed to be arguing that a Catholic could accept doctrines, and even practice them in their own lives, while taking part in political coalitions that worked toward centrist compromises in public life.
However, decades later, then Vice President Joe Biden moved from words to personal deeds by officiating at the 2016 same-sex marriage rite for two White House staffers, Brian Mosteller and Joe Mahshie. And in 2022, President Biden openly supported same-sex marriage.
When U.S. bishops said the Respect for Marriage Act didn’t include adequate protection for faith groups that opposed gay marriage, Biden simply said, “I disagree.” It was time, he said, for the church to accept that the culture had changed.
At the same time, Biden remained active in Catholic sacraments, with or without news cameras nearby — with his favorite rosary in his pocket. His supporters always called him a “devout,” “active” Catholic. He was practicing his own approach to Catholic doctrine.
What about the new occupant of 10 Downing Street?
In an Associated Press audio report on this topic, the veteran British religion-beat professional Ruth Gledhill, now the assistant editor of The Tablet, noted:
“Andy Burnham is the first who was, baptized a Catholic, was an altar boy, grew up in the Catholic Church. but I wouldn’t say that he’s necessarily a regular Mass going Catholic now. So some people might describe him as more of a cultural Catholic, and certainly in some aspects the Catholic Church’s teaching I know there are some Catholics that would find him in opposition.”
A lengthy feature from Religion News service backed that up.
Burnham, 56, has said he was shaped by the Catholic Church. Last year, he spoke of its influence during his lecture for the religion-meets-politics think tank, Theos. He told the audience there is a need to move from a crisis of trust to “a culture of encounter,” a phrase he attributed to the late Pope Francis. …
During his first campaign to secure the Labour leadership in 2010 — he lost to Ed Miliband — Burnham was interviewed by The Tablet, the Catholic weekly. “My mother was not religious in any showy way,” he told The Tablet. “I am like her in that, to use a Scouse (Liverpudlian) phrase, we don’t lick the altar steps.”
But what has clearly profoundly affected Burnham is the body of theology known as Catholic social teaching. Acknowledging the importance of individual responsibility, Catholic social teaching focuses on the importance of the common good and people working together toward it.
When push comes to shove, will Burnham argue that he is a “Pope Francis“ Catholic?
That will get complicated when he points to the Catholic Catechism on economic issues linked to the poor, immigrants and the dignity of human beings at all stages of life — yet fails to apply the same doctrines to other moral issues in modern Britain.
The RNS feature hinted at one specific issue to watch — euthanasia.
Burnham has also indicated he has difficulties with some aspects of Catholic teaching, particularly personal sexual morality. In 2015, in an interview with Premier Christian News, he said he had issues with its teaching on contraception and homosexuality, describing it as developing “a more judgmental mode” under Pope Benedict XVI. But he went on to say that “Catholic social teaching underpins my politics.”
Catholic leaders will no doubt watch how the new prime minister might deal with contentious issues such as assisted dying, considered anathema to the Catholic Church, or funding for faith schools.
Stay tuned. The new prime minister will almost certainly have a short political honeymoon. How will he handle his first public meeting with Pope Leo XIV? In terms of symbolism, will he seek a blessing?