Australian historian Manning Clark described the Australian attitude to spirituality as “a shy hope in the heart”. We are uncomfortable with overt displays of religiosity or, indeed, strident atheism.

For most Australians, to be asked by a stranger (as happens in the US) if they know Jesus as saviour would be cringe-making. This is the cultural context in which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who visited the newly installed Pope Leo XIV last month, claimed a strong Catholic heritage, then almost immediately repudiated that by telling journalists his faith played no role in his politics.

It seems that Albo’s faith is not so much shy as painfully introverted. It scarcely figures in his discourse compared with,........

© The Sydney Morning Herald