California's fifth consecutive Catholic governor exemplifies the faith's deep roots
Xavier Becerra’s election makes him California’s fifth consecutive Catholic governor and the state’s first elected Latino governor. Becerra has said his Catholic upbringing informs his politics, while his support for abortion rights illustrates how Catholic identity does not align neatly with one political position. Catholic voters helped elect Becerra: about six in ten Catholic voters and seven in ten Latino Catholic voters supported him, while white Catholic voters were divided. California has more Catholics than any other U.S. state, and its Catholic community has a long history and varied political views.
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Xavier Becerra’s election makes him California’s fifth consecutive Catholic governor, continuing a long-standing connection between Catholicism and state identity. His support for abortion rights, despite describing Catholic teaching as influential in his life, reflects the political diversity of California Catholics and Catholics nationally. 1
Becerra, a Democrat and former U.S. health and human services secretary, said his Catholic upbringing shaped his view of the sanctity of life while he campaigned as a supporter of abortion rights. He is also the state’s first elected Latino governor. 1
California’s run of Catholic governors began with Gray Davis, who took office in 1999; four of the five, including Becerra, are Democrats. The state has more Catholics than any other in the country: a 2024 Pew Research Center poll found that 25% of California adults identify as Catholic, nearly half of the state’s Christians. 1
Catholic teaching does not fit neatly into party categories, the article notes, combining positions such as economic progressivism and opposition to the death penalty with official opposition to abortion and in vitro fertilization. David Gibson of Fordham University’s Center on Religion and Culture said, “There is no Catholic vote.” 1
In California’s governor’s race, Catholics made up about two in ten voters. Roughly six in ten Catholic voters backed Becerra, while about four in ten supported Republican Steve Hilton; around seven in ten Latino Catholics voted for Becerra, while white Catholics divided about evenly. Nationally, Catholics split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, compared with a slight Republican majority among Catholics in 2024. 1
The article also describes differing relationships between church leaders and political issues. The California Catholic Conference praised Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to commute more than 500 death sentences, while San Bernardino Bishop Alberto Rojas excused parishioners from their Sunday Mass obligation after immigration detentions on parish properties. San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, by contrast, barred Catholic U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi from Communion over her support for abortion rights. 1
California Catholics include immigrants from Latin America and the Philippines, as well as families whose histories in the state reach back generations. Tracy Creighton, whose ancestry connects to the Spanish missions, described service to others and respect for nature as values she wants to pass on to her children. 1
The 21 missions founded between 1769 and 1823 remain part of the state’s religious and cultural landscape, but their legacy is contested. Theology professor Cecilia González-Andrieu said that legacy carries “problematic implications,” while historian William Deverell said the mission system contributed to a catastrophic decline in the Indigenous population. 1
California’s public-school curriculum addresses the missions’ history, and a state law that took effect last year requires social studies lessons on missionaries’ mistreatment of Native Americans and inclusion of Native perspectives. The missions also remain active parishes and landmarks, and their influence can be seen in Spanish Colonial Revival architecture and in the personal traditions of residents. 1
For some Californians, Catholic identity persists even when regular participation in church does not. Fresno resident Brian Murillo, who described himself as a lapsed Catholic, said he still prays familiar Catholic prayers—an example of how faith and upbringing remain embedded in everyday life. 1
Catholic identity shapes political conscience amid pluralism
The claim that Catholic identity shapes political conscience amid pluralism expresses a central Catholic distinction: Catholics may participate fully in democratic life as Catholics, without demanding that the state impose Catholic belief, while still being responsible for bringing moral convictions into public judgment. Pluralism allows disagreement over many political arrangements and policies; it does not require treating every moral claim as equally true or asking religious citizens to leave their convictions out of public life.
For Catholic teaching, political responsibility is one part of a person’s moral life, not a separate sphere in which faith ceases to matter. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith says the Church’s role is not to seize political power or settle every political question, but to form consciences so that public action serves human dignity and the common good. It rejects the idea that Catholics can live by one set of values in worship and another in family, work, and public responsibilities.
“There cannot be two parallel lives in their existence: on the one hand, the so-called ‘spiritual life’, with its values and demands; and on the other, the so-called ‘secular’ life, that is, life in a family, at work, in social responsibilities, in the responsibilities of public life and in culture.”
This does not mean that every political decision is directly dictated by Church teaching. Rather, Catholic identity supplies moral principles and a view of the human person that should inform political reasoning. In the United States bishops’ teaching, the faithful are called to participate as citizens, and their political engagement should be guided by well-formed consciences, concern for every person’s dignity, the common good, and protection of the vulnerable.
Catholic teaching recognizes genuine political diversity. Citizens may reasonably disagree about how to organize society, which strategies will best achieve a shared good, or how to respond to complex circumstances. The Church does not claim that one party or one specific policy is the only acceptable Catholic option in every temporal matter; it leaves many such judgments to the responsible conscience of the faithful.
But pluralism has limits. The CDF distinguishes legitimate disagreement about policies from the claim that all views of human good have equal moral standing. It argues that democratic life depends on ethical foundations, not simply on the existence of competing preferences. It also warns against using “pluralism” or political autonomy to excuse policies that undermine fundamental moral requirements.
That distinction matters in practice. A Catholic voter, officeholder, or advocate may disagree with other Catholics about the most effective legislation, the proper role of government, or which policy best serves a goal. Those are often prudential judgments: decisions requiring careful application of moral principles to particular circumstances. But disagreement over means does not make the underlying moral questions irrelevant. In its guidance for U.S. Catholics, the bishops identify respect for human life, marriage, parents’ freedom to educate their children, and the broader common good as matters with public consequences.
A common criticism of religious political participation is that citizens who act from faith are imposing their beliefs on others. The CDF’s response is that Catholic participation is not inherently an effort to establish religious rule. It describes Catholics acting according to conscience as contributing to a more just society and stresses that the moral principles they defend are understood as grounded in human nature, not as rules that only Christians can recognize.
The U.S. bishops likewise argue that religious communities should be free to participate in public life without being required to abandon their moral convictions. They present religious contributions to public debate as compatible with, and potentially enriching of, pluralism.
This does not authorize coercion in matters of religion. The supplied scholarly discussion of Catholicism and democracy emphasizes that different political arrangements can be legitimate when they serve the common good, and that a just society should not use government to impose religious belief. The relevant distinction is between bringing moral arguments into public debate and using state power to compel religious adherence. Catholic teaching supports the first while rejecting the second.
“Following conscience” does not mean treating personal preference as the final moral authority. The CDF describes political conscience as something to be formed by faith and moral reasoning, and says the Church has a responsibility to offer moral guidance where faith or moral law is involved. At the same time, it recognizes that the faithful retain freedom to make responsible judgments about many political questions.
The bishops connect this responsibility to the way Catholics live out their faith publicly. Their account of “Eucharistic consistency” says that worship should have consequences for relationships and decisions, particularly for those responsible for laws affecting fundamental human values. They call political leaders to virtues such as courage, justice, temperance, and prudence—not merely to partisan loyalty.
That has practical implications for political conduct. Catholics should assess candidates, parties, and policies in light of moral principles rather than assume that a party label guarantees a faithful choice. The bishops explicitly caution that party affiliation must not lead Catholics to neglect or deny fundamental moral truths.
Catholic political engagement is not meant to serve Catholics alone. The common good concerns the good of society and its members, including people who do not share Catholic faith. A scholarly account in the supplied material describes the common good as involving the welfare of non-Catholics as well as Catholics, and links it to human dignity and the protection of vulnerable people.
This helps clarify why Catholic identity can shape political conscience in a pluralist society without making political participation sectarian. Catholics act from their particular understanding of the human person, but they can seek goods that others also recognize, even when they give different reasons for supporting them. The same source argues that acting as a Catholic does not, by itself, make someone less capable of participating responsibly in a pluralist democracy.
The phrase supplied does not identify a particular political controversy or news event, so it cannot establish which policies, candidates, or public disputes are at issue. As a general claim, however, it is consistent with the Catholic sources: faith should inform political conscience; legitimate disagreement over policy should be respected; and pluralism should not be confused either with religious coercion or with the idea that moral truth has no place in public life.