Rachel Maddow wants to be Catholic again — church leaders have questions

By: Derek VanBuskirk

Leaders of large Catholic organizations responded to openly gay left-wing pundit Rachel Maddow saying she’s returned to Catholicism despite a career of sharing views contrary to the church’s teachings.

The MSNBC host recently told a live audience on Dec. 12 that the election of Pope Leo XIV had played a large role in returning her to her childhood faith.

“I was born and raised in a conservative Catholic family, and I’m Catholic myself after having not considered myself that for some time, but I do consider myself to be back in the faith,” Maddow said.

Bill Donohue, president and CEO of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization, spoke to The Daily Caller. He said that though he hopes the move is genuine, it “doesn’t make any sense” as the political and social positions she has spent her career advocating for are “wildly out of step” with Catholic doctrine.

Donohue acknowledged that while he doesn’t know the full details of Maddow’s personal journey, he has a long history with her, having debated her on MSNBC for years on topics such as abortion and LGBTQ+ issues, where she finds herself at odds with traditional Catholic doctrine.

“I welcome anybody into the faith. I’d like to know more about her reasoning, though. It seems a bit shallow from what I’ve learned,” Donohue said.

Maddow implied in her announcement that it was Leo’s stance on immigration that brought her back to the fold, joking that the timing of the pope’s election appeared to have been “grown in a lab to radicalize American Catholics” against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

Donohue told the Caller he found this confusing. While saying bishops hold a liberal view on immigration and mass deportation, and the Vatican even more so, he added that the stance between Pope Leo and Pope Francis has not actually changed that much.

Donohue said that if Maddow’s decision is merely driven by “political contemporary thought” and not theology, “then it just seems to me that’s a fairly shallow way to approach this kind of conversion.”

Despite the church’s “decidedly liberal” stance on immigration, the church has also held “decidedly conservative” views on marriage and the family, he said.

Donohue noted that while prominent clergy members are in “open dissent” regarding LGBTQ+ issues, their personal views do not change the official doctrine of the church, even if they “confuse a lot of Catholics.”

He said such dissent is found less on the issue of abortion, a stance Maddow has been pushing for years.

Even as Republicans are starting to realize the doomsday political implications of their abortion bans, they just can’t stop themselves.

Today’s new episode of Rachel Maddow Presents: Déjà News is here to help!

Free to listen online or w/any podcast app:https://t.co/ShzRx02p06

— Rachel Maddow (@maddow) July 10, 2023

President and CEO of CatholicVote Kelsey Reinhardt told the Caller that it’s encouraging to see Maddow return to the Catholic Church, “even more so as we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Lord at Christmas.”

“We welcome her and willingly offer heartfelt prayers that the Lord will guide her to live and love the truth and beauty of the teachings of the Catholic Church,” she continued, calling it “good news.”

“What we do know is that she wants to be closer to the Church now than before,” the CatholicVote president said.

“There is no point chastising her for views she has expressed in the past; we have only to hope for a better future for Rachel and those around her,” Reinhardt said. “We do not know the specifics of her journey home, nor is she obliged to share them with anyone other than her confessor.”

It remains to be seen if Maddow’s views will reflect the church’s past positions on immigration. However, Reinhardt and Donohue said they are waiting to see the fruits of Maddow’s reconversion while deferring expectations.

Maddow is not the only openly gay television host to return to Catholicism recently. Good Morning America co-anchor Gio Benitez announced his confirmation in November in an Instagram post thanking New York church leaders for their inspiration and guidance.

Maddow has not responded to the Caller’s request for comment.

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