“There’s been a gnawing pain in my heart and soul about what is the meaning of life. What’s my role in it?” Australia’s former Governor General and avowed atheist Bill Hayden explained his conversion to Catholicism at 85 years old. 

As he readied himself for the baptism, he reflected on his newfound faith. “This took too long, and now I am going to be devoted. From this day forward I’m going to vouch for God,” Hayden told The Catholic Leader. 

There’s More to Life Than Just Me

Although he grew up in a Catholic family, he didn’t realize until much later that he was not a Catholic.

I would go to mass every Sunday and then go to benediction when I was a teenager. I didn’t know that I wasn’t officially a Catholic, and found that out only later when my sister did the family history.
When you grow up with it, I don’t think it ever really leaves you. The Catholics have ceremony very much in place. But it was more than that. I could just feel in my heart that I didn’t feel fulfilled.

There is more to life than just me. I had to make a dedication of myself for the good of others, ­before God. I felt that strongly.

Hayden said that the turning point was a visit to see Sister of Mercy Angela Mary Doyle, a 92-year-old nun whose lifelong service inspired him. “I have always felt embraced and loved by her Christian example,” said Hayden. “Dallas [my wife], our daughter Ingrid and I recently visited Sister Angela Mary in the Mater Hospital where she was a patient. The next morning I woke with the strong sense that I had been in the presence of a holy woman. So after dwelling on these things, I found my way back to the core of those beliefs — the Church.”

Doyle was at Hayden’s baptism, which took place at St. Mary’s Church in Ipswich. 

One of Australia’s iconic Labor leaders and former Governor General Bill Hayden has been baptised a Catholic at the age of 85, and after a lifetime as a declared atheist. #auspol #australianlabor #CatholicChurch https://t.co/UorKtQKH7k pic.twitter.com/CJdIMzZViO

— The Catholic Leader (@TheCatholicLead) September 18, 2018

According to Patheos, he explained in a letter to friends that the Christian principles of “humanity, social commitment and service to others” were in line with his personal and political values. They steered him toward his return to faith. “Christianity represents for me the qualities I have attempted to apply in my life but from now on will strive to uphold, with faith.”