Catholic Faith Minister moved to Ministry of Justice

Lord Lemos of Thornton Heath was moved to the Ministry of Justice last week after 22 days as Faith Minister.

Lemos, a Roman Catholic, was the tenth faith minister in a decade. His replacement, based in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), has not been announced.

He had begun to visit people of different faiths around England and to answer questions in the Lords, including on the aftermath of random attacks on Muslims in Edinburgh.

Prior to his appointment as Faith Minister on 12 June, Lemos was a government whip from 22 July 2025.  A writer on social policy and former chair of English Heritage and the Prison and Probation Service, in 2024 Gerard Lemos published Childhood and Contemporary Catholicism.

The book emerged from in-depth interviews with young people, Catholic priests, nuns, teachers, doctors, psychologists working with children and young people across the world, ranging from Salesian priests in Spain to trainers on safeguarding in Brazil and a Benedictine monk in Israel.

“I wanted to find out … how children and young people saw their lives in relation to Catholic faith, doctrine and practice in contemporary society,” he explains in the book. “Did young people still pray? Did the lives of Catholic saints have any resonance for modern young people?”

Writing about his book in The Tablet in January 2025, Lemos enquired: “Has the abuse crisis torn up the roots of Catholicism?” His research led Lemos to conclude that “Catholicism is still at the centre of many children’s lives” but that “belief and practice has become radically more individual in societies where religious affiliation is not taken for granted”.

“For most young people, God is no longer thought of as an authoritarian figure … Problems arise when powerful adults try to force children to subscribe to false certainties and adults fail to listen to children,” he added.

The son of an Indian family who moved to south London, Lord Lemos mentioned his own experience of abuse by a sacristan when he was a 10-year-old altar boy. “The abuse crisis exposed the shameful truth that, in some circumstances, Catholic priests have used their power and authority to destroy the lives of children,” he observed.

Lemos’ other publications include The Good Prison: Conscience, Crime and Punishment (2014). In 2001, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) for services to the British Council. In 2024 he was appointed CBE for services to the Prison and Probation Service.

Catholic peer appointed Faith Minister to the United Kingdom

Growing up Catholic

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