In search of Catholic celebrities

by Gunther Simmermacher · Published May 26, 2013 · Updated May 9, 2017

Recently I learnt that one of the world’s most beautiful women is a devout Catholic who goes to Mass every week.

In her line as one of the world’s top supermodels, Adriana Lima has revealed much skin, and yet the Brazilian preserved her virginity until she married basketball star Marko Jari? in 2009, when she was 27.
Lima has told interviewers that sex is for after marriage. Men, she told the men’s magazine GQ in 2006 have to respect that this is my choice. If there’s no respect, that means they don’t want me.

Supermodel Adriana Lima is outspoken about the importance of the Catholic faith in her life and she is not the only celebrity.

In a society which sees non-marital sexual activity as inevitable and even ridicules sexual abstinence as the state of the credulous or the frumpy, Lima showed great courage in so publicly proclaiming her virginity, and the set of ethics on which it rested. It is a courage which Catholics can take inspiration from.

Celebrities influence the mores of society, though rarely for the better. They may not choose to be role-models indeed, a fruitful debate can be had on whether celebrities, by virtue of being public figures, should be required to bear that responsibility but many people do follow their lead.

This, of course, is particularly true of young people who are still forming their identity. Some have non-celeb adults in their environment from whom they can draw inspiration, others have no such mentors and look to public figures (it could be Nelson Mandela or Paris Hilton, or even both). Most, I would suggest, look to both sources.

This is where Catholic public figures are so necessary in providing leadership, as a service to their Saviour. Adriana Lima has provided a wonderful example of that.

It is her kind of example that we need as a model for Catholicism, rather than that of Mel Gibson, an ultra-traditionalist who in drunken rages in vino veritas est yells misogynist, racist and anti-semitic abuse.

The star of Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ, Jim Caviezel, is a devout Catholic of conservative views who seems to walk the line and who speaks very openly about his faith.

He wasn’t speaking about his pal Mel, but he might as well have done so when he told BustedHalo.com: I can’t sit on the other side and say I’m not going to be Christian because this guy did this and that guy did that.

It’s a very obvious point; so obvious that sometimes we forget to make it.

Famous Catholics: footballer Javier Hernandez, singer Nicole Scherzinger, actor Bradley Cooper, artist Andy Warhol.

Both ex-wives of the Scientologist Tom Cruise who grew up a Catholic and once considered becoming a Franciscan priest reverted to their Catholicism after leaving the actor.

Nicole Kidman ascribed the end to their decade-long marriage to religious differences (though one would presume there were other reasons). The Australian actress has frequently spoken about her faith since rejoining the Catholic Church.

Second wife Katie Holmes publicly returned to the Catholic faith after divorcing Cruise last year, and even defied the apostle of Scientology by enrolling their daughter in a Catholic school.

Talking of divorcees, actress Denise Richards returned to her faith after the death of her mother. She was married to Charlie Sheen, who was raised Catholic but hasn’t done much to reflect the faith’s ethos, much to the pain of his father, the great actor Martin Sheen, who is a very devout and active Catholic.

Actor/producer Mark Wahlberg has credited his Catholic faith from pulling him back from a life of iniquity. After walking out of prison, where he served a term for attempted murder, he immediately sought out a priest. Wahlberg still makes questionable choices, but believes his faith gives him the strength to fight his demons. Being a Catholic is the most important aspect of my life, he has said.

Bradley Cooper, one of the brightest stars in Hollywood at the moment, would agree. He has said that he is Catholic in my bones. He regained his strong faith after a stint in rehab and has said that he prays daily.

And, of course, there is the great American satirist Steven Colbert, who regularly refers to his Catholicism and even teaches catechism in his parish.

Other (self-)reportedly practising Catholic celebrities include Steve Carell, Alec Baldwin, Lea Michele, Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Chris O’Donnell, Sylvester Stallone, Alexis Bledel, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mickey Rourke, Pierce Brosnan, ay Mohr, Jon Voight, Neal McDonough, Brooke Shields, Josh Duhamel, as well as musicians Jack White, Nicole Scherzinger, Harry Connick Jr and Fergie of Black Eyed Peas, who is married to Duhamel (they reportedly attend Mass together).

There were many Catholic celebrities in the past ‘ from Spencer Tracy, Gregory Peck, Frank Capra, Alfred Hitchcock, Jane Russell and Claudette Colbert to the recently deceased Charles Durning and Peter Boyle ‘ but the most unexpected of them must be artist Andy Warhol, who presided over a world of artistic hedonism.

Warhol, who died in 1987, was in fact a church-going Catholic who, amid all the decadence which he promoted, lived celibately, as reported in Jane Daggett Dillenberger’s 2001
book The Religious Art of Andy Warhol.

Warhol was elusive about his faith, but he wore a cross around his neck, carried with him a rosary and a missal, often attended daily Mass and volunteered at a parish soup kitchen in New York.

US swimming golden girl Missy Franklin. (CNS photo/David Gray, Reuters)

Judging by the number of times one sees sports people, especially footballers, crossing themselves, there must be many Catholics in that community.

Argentinian Inter Milan legend Javier Zanetti recently met with Pope Francis (and presented him with an Inter jersey, to add to the football fan pope’s rapidly expanding collection), and tennis star Roger Federer, who is a practising Catholic of the more discreet kind, met with Pope Benedict XVI. And then there are last year’s US Olympic golden girls, swimmers Missy Franklin, Allison Schmitt and Katie Ledecky.

Football icons Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba, Miroslav Klose and Andres Iniesta (who promised to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of Santiago de Compostela if Spain won the 2010 World Cup) are also practising Catholics, and Dutch star Wesley Sneijder converted to Catholicism in 2010. Manchester United’s Mexican striker Javier Hernandez even kneels in the centre circle to pray before games.

Obviously a compilation of interesting Catholics will not win theological arguments, but their presence and testimony, especially in an environment of moral ambiguity, might give courage to Catholics, especially among the youth, as they are pressured to conform to a secularised mainstream.