Celebrated Australian Atheist, Political Leader Converts to Christianity at 85: "From This Day Forward I'm Going to Vouch for God"

Dorothy Cummings McLean : Sep 20, 2018
LifeSiteNews.com

"There's been a gnawing pain in my heart and soul about what is the meaning of life. What's my role in it? I can no longer accept that human existence is self-sufficient and isolated." -Former Governor General Bill Hayden told the Catholic Leader.

(Brisbane, Australia)— [LifeSiteNews.com] A famous Australian politician who made no secret of his atheism has converted to Christianity. (Photo: Bill Hayden (left) in 1987, signing an agreement with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze /Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade/via LifeSiteNews)

Former Governor General Bill Hayden was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church on September 9th at St. Mary's Church, Ipswich, near Brisbane.

He told the Catholic Leader that he hoped his faith would inspire those saddened by the current crisis in the Church.

This took too long, and now I am going to be devoted," Hayden said. "From this day forward I'm going to vouch for God."

Hayden, 85, was the leader of the Australian Labor Party from 1977 to 1983 and served as a cabinet minister in subsequent Labor governments. The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade from 1983 to 1988, he left parliament to become the Queen's representative in Australia, the Governor General. He served in this post for seven years.

The politician's atheism was not of a private nature. In 1996 he was declared "the Australian Humanist of the Year" by the Council of Australian Humanist Societies. But twenty years later, Hayden felt a tug on his heart.

"There's been a gnawing pain in my heart and soul about what is the meaning of life. What's my role in it?" he told the Catholic Leader.

"I can no longer accept that human existence is self-sufficient and isolated."

Although inspired by memories of his devout Catholic mother and the Ursuline order of sisters that taught him as a child, Hayden said that the catalyst to his conversion was a Sister of Mercy. Ninety-three-year-old Sister Angela Mary Doyle also attended his baptism.

"I have always felt embraced and loved by her Christian example," Hayden said... Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here.

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