Ever since I watched him being savaged by two reporters in a television interview, while trying to get them to listen to why he was introducing Medicare, I’ve admired Bill Hayden, one of Australia’s iconic Labor leaders and former Governor General. But I always hoped that Bill, a lifelong atheist, who displayed such compassion for people and concern for justice might, himself, encounter Christ, who is the source and inspiration of those things. And now it’s happened. At the age of 85 he was recently baptized in St Mary’s Catholic Church in Ipswich. ‘There’s been a gnawing pain in my heart and soul about what is the meaning of life,’ he said. ‘I can no longer accept that human existence is self-sufficient and isolated…From this day forward, I’m going to vouch for God.’ All I can say is: me too!