Catholic Converts

Newt Gingrich, who becomes a Catholic this weekend, isn’t the first celebrity to find the church later in life. From Jeb Bush to Nicole Kidman, The Daily Beast presents 12 famous converts.

Todd Williamson, WireImage / Getty Images

galleries/2009/03/27/catholic-converts/catholianne-rice_tidocx — Queen of the Damned author Anne Rice gave up demonic subjects to return to her religious roots, publishing Christ The Lord: Out of Egypt in 2005.
Todd Williamson, WireImage / Getty Images

galleries/2009/03/27/catholic-converts/catholinicole-kidman_vza2ln — When Nicole Kidman divorced Tom Cruise in 2001, she ditched Scientology and experienced a “spiritual homecoming,” returning to Catholicism.
Mark Baker / AP Photo

galleries/2009/03/27/catholic-converts/catholitony-blair_je5itg — Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair converted to Catholicism after leaving office in 2007. The British press said his conversion was due to his sensitivity to the role of religion in public life.
Kathy Willens / AP Photo

galleries/2009/03/27/catholic-converts/catholigary-cooper_sj3bhx — In the mid-1950s, Gary Cooper was the toast of Hollywood. But in private life, he quietly converted to Catholicism. “His reasons for converting are his to know,” Cooper’s daughter later wrote of her father.
AP Photo

galleries/2009/03/27/catholic-converts/catholijeb-bush_qfm9vm — Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush converted when he married his wife, a Catholic, in 1995, and became a Fourth Degree Knight of Columbus in 2004.
Stan Honda, AFP / Getty Images

galleries/2009/03/27/catholic-converts/catholifrances-shand-kydd_sqvw8k — Frances Shand Kydd, mother of Princess Diana, converted to Roman Catholicism late in life. In the years before her death in 2004 at 68, she devoted herself to Catholic charity work.
Anwar Hussein, WireImage / Getty Images

galleries/2009/03/27/catholic-converts/catholigraham-greene_bm42gw — Graham Greene converted late in life, and developed a fascination with Padre Pio, a miracle-working Capuchin monk. “In Rome I was told by a Monsignor of the Vatican that Padre Pio was ‘a pious old fraud,’ a view which I did not share,” Greene once wrote.
Popperfoto / Getty Images

galleries/2009/03/27/catholic-converts/catholibobby-jindal_zraq0f — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who grew up in a Hindu household, converted to Catholicism in college. "I did not have an overnight epiphany like so many people do,” Jindal has said, calling his conversion a "very intellectual-based journey.”
Tim Mueller / AP Photo

galleries/2009/03/27/catholic-converts/catholits-eliot_ilcbfs — T.S. Eliot’s writings on the human condition led him to consider tradition and sacrament, and eventually caused him to convert from and eventually caused him to convert from Unitarianism to Anglo-Catholicism.
Chris Bacon, AFP / Getty Images

galleries/2009/03/27/catholic-converts/catholibrownback_ay3n7d — Early Presidential contender Sen. Sam Brownback has been all over the map of Christianity. Raised as a Methodist, Brownback switched to evangelicalism before officially converting to Catholicism in 2002 through Opus Dei.
Win McNamee / Getty Images

galleries/2009/03/27/catholic-converts/conversions-novak_jijqlz — Political commentator Bob Novak was raised as a secular Jew, but became a devout Catholic in 1998. Novak has said the Catholic belief in the afterlife was “comforting” during his battle with brain cancer.
Alex Wong / Getty Images for Meet The Press

TRENDING NOW