Rachel Maddow, Openly Gay MSNBC Anchor, Returns to the Catholic Church
After years away, Maddow says she considers herself Catholic again. She believes Pope Leo can both “soften hearts and sharpen minds” during his pontificate.
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MS NOW anchor Rachel Maddow — one of America’s most prominent progressive voices — recently revealed to a live audience that, after years away, she has returned to the Catholic Church.
It was an remarkable admission from a public figure who is openly gay and often seen as a secular icon.
Maddow’s revelation came during a Q&A at a local event when an audience member asked for her thoughts on the election of Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, and his stance on immigration.
In her response, Maddow praised both Pope Francis and Pope Leo, framing the moment as almost providential.
The Church had “just said goodbye to Pope Francis and his message of not just empathy but solidarity with immigrants the world over,” Maddow noted, and then along came Pope Leo — a Chicago-born successor who shares Francis’s passion for migrant justice.
The timing was so perfect, she quipped, it was “like it was just grown in a lab to radicalize American Catholics” against cruelty to immigrants.
In Maddow’s view, it’s divine intervention that after Francis’s death the cardinals chose a pope so outspoken on these issues.
Maddow then shared a bit of her own faith journey. “I was born and raised in a conservative Catholic family… after having not considered myself [Catholic] for some time, I do consider myself to be back in the faith,” she told the crowd.
Coming out as a lesbian in her youth, Maddow had drifted from the Church for nearly 30 years. But now, she said, Pope Leo’s witness on issues like immigration has drawn her back to her religious roots.
She was deeply inspired by an outdoor Mass for immigrant detainees at the Broadview ICE facility in Illinois where hundreds of faithful in prayerful protest.
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Seeing the Church champion society’s vulnerable again has reignited something in her. Maddow argued that if you’re Catholic, “the pope and the actions of the Church and the bishops honestly matter” in shaping your moral outlook. And beyond just Catholics, she believes a pope “speaks to a universal conscience and to a universal heart” in a way no other leader can.
“There’s something about the role of the pope that is unlike any other role on earth,” Maddow observed, adding that if Leo “can soften people’s hearts and sharpen people’s vision on this topic, he may change the world — and [the Trump Administration] will regret messing with him on this topic.”
Those words drew loud applause.
In that moment, the progressive television host essentially affirmed Pope Leo XIV as a pivotal moral voice on the global stage — one capable of moving even secular minds and challenging governments.
Maddow even suggested that the Trump White House must be kicking itself for trying to meddle in Church affairs (reportedly, Trump allies had eyed the 2025 conclave with hopes of a more compliant pope).
Instead, they got Leo XIV, who has proven to be a relentless champion of migrants and a critic of nationalist “build walls” ideology.
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He’s already rebuked immigration crackdowns and blasted the “logic of exclusion” fueling rising nationalism. Now, as the youngest pope in 35 years, Leo is poised to help defeat Trumpism for good.
Maddow’s public return to Catholicism is part of a larger trend in Pope Leo’s America.
She joins other high-profile LGBTQ Americans whose faith has been reawakened by the Church’s newfound tone of inclusion.
