In short exchange with a journalist during the G7 summit in Cornwall, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson refused to comment on whether or not he is now a practicing Catholic.
ITV political editor Robert Peston noted that Johnson got married in Westminster Cathedral on May 29, and then asked him, “Are you now a practicing Roman Catholic?”
Johnson replied, “I don’t dis-cuss these deep issues. Certainly not with you.”
Johnson was the first prime minster to get married in office for 199 years, and his unannounced wedding to Carrie Symonds caused some to question how he was married in a Catholic ceremony, since Johnson was married twice before.
The answer was that Johnson was baptized Catholic – he left the Church and became an Anglican while in school – and Church law stipulates that his previous two marriages weren’t recognized, since they had not been solemnized in the Catholic Church.
Symonds is a practicing Catholic and has not been married before.
Writing on the ITV website, Peston said he was “struggling to make sense of the prime minister’s answer” to his question about Johnson’s religion.
“He is aware that – for better or worse (worse for a long time) – this has been a pertinent quest-ion for chief and prime ministers since Henry Vlll,” Peston wrote. “More broadly, the professed faith or none of a leader matters to many voters.”