Has Boris Johnson forgotten he's meant to be a Roman Catholic?

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You may have seen the story in the Times about Boris Johnson for the obesity crisis. Apparently

Boris Johnson has blamed the Church of England for Britain's obesity crisis because its failure to provide the "spiritual sustenance" that people need is leading them to gorge themselves.

And later in the story we're told:

He recounted a recent visit to church with his family, "It was all about how rich men can't go through the eye of a needle all that sort of pot," he said, adding that instead of the Archbishop of Canterbury going on about slavery reparations "he should ask himself why people in this country are so bloody fat".

Johnson was being interviewed by the nepo baby's nepo baby and fellow Old Etonian Henry Dimbleby, which probably explains why Johnson's persona was at its most exaggerated. But, and you may find this hard to believe, I don't think Johnson is telling the truth about going to a Church of England service.

Because he's meant to be a Roman Catholic.

And his conversion was a big deal at the time. Here's Mark Bowling writing for the Catholic Leader in July 2022:

After the dust has settled at Number 10 Downing Street, there’s time to consider what is the legacy of Boris Johnson – Britain’s first Catholic Prime Minister, now caretaker PM until a new leader is announced on September 5.

Baptised as an infant into the Catholic faith of his mother, Charlotte Johnson Wahl, young Boris later became an Anglican while at Eton and was confirmed into the Church of England.

Little is known of Johnson’s faith journey in the years that followed – he was not a churchgoing man – and no major questions about faith were asked when he became Prime Minister in 2019.

But his faith came under the spotlight in May last year when Johnson married his long-time girlfriend Carrie Symonds at Westminster Cathedral, the seat of English Catholicism.

According to The Tablet’s Rome correspondent, Christopher Lamb, Boris Johnson is Britain’s first Catholic prime minister since laws were changed barring Catholics from the role.

So if the Johnsons really did go to church en famille, it will surely have been a Roman Catholic church.

Anyway, Johnson has given me to an excuse to plug an old essay of mine on children and obesity.