Mark Wahlberg Has Been Very Open About His Faith — A Look at His Religious Beliefs

Even as he’s remained a top flight movie star, Mark Wahlberg has also been unafraid to share many of his most controversial views throughout his career. One of the many things that he’s been very open about are his religious beliefs.

Mark has starred in serious dramas and plenty of action films, but across the span of his career, he’s always been open about his faith. Here’s what we know about the actor’s religion and what he’s said about it.

Mark is a practicing Catholic, and he doesn’t exactly mind talking about it. Even as he promotes his movies, Mark also takes time to discuss religion in many of his interviews, and appeared on Good Morning America on Ash Wednesday in February 2024 with the ash cross on his forehead.

In the past, Mark has discussed the role that the discipline of religion played in his life, saying that he needed that discipline as he made the transition from music to acting.

“That discipline has afforded me so many other things,” Mark said in speaking with Variety in 2023. “I want to share that with people. So whether that’s with fasting, working out more, detaching from other things, and just spending more time with God in prayer or in thoughtful reflection and those things are important.”

Mark has also emphasized that he sees faith as restorative, and for people who have lived imperfect lives.

“[Faith] is everything, it’s afforded me so many things,” he said. “God didn’t come to save the saints. He came to save the sinners … We want to be better versions of ourselves, and through focusing my faith, it’s allowed me to do that.”

Mark was clear, though, that he tries to strike a balance in his own career, and his goal is not to stuff his religious beliefs “down anyone’s throat.”

At the same time, though, the actor he explained that he never denies his faith, and will discuss it when asked.

“That’s an even bigger sin. You know, it’s not popular in my industry, but, you know, I cannot deny my faith,” he said. ”It’s important for me to share that with people. I have friends from all walks of life and all different types of faiths and religions, so you know, it’s important to respect and honor them as well.”

In fact, Mark has gone so far as to suggest that he has some regret over some of his prior roles, including his part in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, in which he plays a porn star.

That role helped to prove Mark had legitimate skill as an actor, but it’s a part he might have turned down later in life.

In 2022, he claimed that he had put millions of his own dollars into the making of Father Stu, a religious film which tells the true story of a former amateur boxer who becomes a priest while living with inclusion body myositis. While not every film he makes is about his faith, it’s clear that the topic is important to him.