William (Bill) Hayden 1933-2023, Governor-General and Leader of the Labor Party
Bill Hayden, the Queensland policeman who rose to head the Labor Party has died aged 90.
He was a well-known atheist until five years ago, when he was baptised into the Catholic Church.
“There’s been a gnawing pain in my heart and soul about what is the meaning of life,” he told the The Catholic Leader – Brisbane’s Catholic paper. “From this day forward I’m going to vouch for God,” as he prepared to be baptised in his home town of Ipswich.
“Mr Hayden attributed his conversion to the influence of his own mother, who was Catholic, and of the Ursuline Sisters, who taught him at primary school in inner-city Brisbane, and who stressed the principles of humanity, social commitment and service to others.” the Leader reported.
““I always regarded myself as a fellow traveller with Catholicism and declared I was a Catholic on official forms, but it wasn’t official,” Mr Hayden told Troy Brampston of the Australian. “I would go to mass every Sunday and then go to benediction when I was a teenager. I didn’t know that I wasn’t officially a Catholic, and found that out only later when my sister did the family history.”
“There is more to life than just me,” Hayden said. “I had to make a dedication of myself for the good of others, before God. I felt that strongly.”
The invitation to the baptism quoted John 20:29 ““Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”