Following a victory on the Jeopardy game show, Gibson moved his family to Australia in 1968 in protest of the Vietnam War and because he believed that changes in American society were immoral.
Gibson is a member of the "traditionalist" Catholic Church, who believes that the Mass should still be said in Latin and that all of the Second Vatican Council is in error. Gibson holds that the Second Vatican Council was a secret anti-Christian plot by both Masons and Jews. Gibson also holds to other conspiracy theories, such as his claim that the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were not carried out by mostly Saudi Arabian Muslims onboard the plane, but rather were carried out by "remote control" by a different party.
Gibson denies that the Holocaust occurred; he claims that it is impossible for the Holocaust to have happened, since, in his view, there would be no way to get rid of so many bodies. He claims that "There weren't even that many Jews in all of Europe", and says that there were more Jews in Europe after World War II, statements disputed by all historians (charts of world Jewish population show a steep dip between the 1920s and the 1950s). In support of his father, Mel Gibson claims that his father's beliefs do not amount to Holocaust denial.