Gavin Newsom Is a Practicing Catholic, and He Really Wants to Be President

Plenty of Democratic politicians are already hard at work trying to figure out how they can be the person who is elected president in 2028. Few of them are being so obvious about it as California Governor Gavin Newsom, though. Newsom just started his own podcast, and, somewhat strangely, his first guest was right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk.

Newsom's decision to start his podcast with a far-right influencer was strange enough, and Newsom went on to take some controversial positions on the podcast itself. Following that controversial start, many wanted to know more about Newsom's religious beliefs. Here's what we know.

Gavin Newsom was raised in the Catholic church and he still describes himself as a practicing Catholic. Newsom has spoken numerous times about his faith and specifically about how he relates his faith to his work in public service.

Newsom's grandparents were devout Catholics, and his father went to church regularly, but grew distant from the church as his own politics evolved.

“The Bible teaches many parts, one body,” Newsom told The Los Angeles Times. “One part suffers, we all suffer, and this notion of communitarianism. You can’t get out of Santa Clara University without the requisite studies and sort of a religious baseline: God and common thought type frames."

Newsom went to school at Santa Clara University, and said that the school instilled a language about "faith and works" that he still practices today.

Newsom attended École Notre Dame des Victoires in San Francisco (a private Catholic school) for a short time in elementary school, and his family often attended Glide Memorial, a nondenominational church in the city.

During a visit to the Vatican in 2024, Newsom received praise from the pope for refusing to impose the death penalty on criminals inside his state, a decision he came to for religious and practical reasons.

“It just never made sense to me, the basic paradigm, that we were going to kill people to communicate to the general public that killing is wrong,” he said. “I could never understand that. I could never sanction that.”

Newsom has never been guarded about his faith, and has spoken openly about how it informs his worldview.

During his very first podcast, Newsom caused some controversy by suggesting that it was "unfair" for trans athletes to compete in sports. The move caused outrage online, in part because many believed it was one way that Newsom was signaling that he was moving to the center on the issue and attempting to distance himself from California's left-wing reputation.

Of course, in positioning himself that way, he is denying rights to an entire group of Americans, many of whom are his current constituents. Trans people might not be a majority of the electorate, but many have argued that Newsom's stance is wrong both morally and politically. Maybe it's what he really believes, or maybe he just wants to be president.