The former prime minister will be received into his new church in a mass at the private chapel of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales.
He has been guided by Fr John Walsh, a former RAF chaplain who celebrated mass at Chequers, and Fr Mark O’Toole, the cardinal’s secretary.
His path to Rome will come as no surprise because his wife Cherie and four children are Catholics and the family have worshipped together for years.
Mr Blair, in one of his final acts as prime minister, met Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican when he told him of wish to leave the Church of England.
Poor Catholics, what have they done to deserve this?
Ah, I remember – it’s payback for Matthew Fox.
Hasn’t Blair been attacking through governmental power the church’s teaching on sex? What kind of confession is he making, I wonder.
How the Reverend Tony Blair served the Catholic Church in England:
– introduced same-sex ‘marriages’ (aka ‘civil partnerships)
– criminalized any criticism of or opposition to homosexuality (‘Sexual Orientation Regulations’), leading to …
– forcing the closure of Catholic adoption agencies (over gay adoption – as happened in Massachusetts)
– prevented any restrictions on abortion (now 200k p.a.)
– tried to ban criticism of Islam (‘hate crimes’), abetted by his megalomaniacal, faux-Catholic avaricious wife.
To say nothing of the endless corruption and dishonesty of his regime (selling seats in the House of Lords, money from tobacco interests, the Mandelson mortgage imbroglios, money for passports from Indian arms dealers etc etc).
Probably the sleaziest politician in recent Britsh history.
Father Seed, you will need to block out a good deal of time for the confession.
#3: to amplify this point about Blair’s rampant dishonesty:
http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_3_oh_to_be.html
Of course the writer, a retired psychiatrist and social commentator, is no fan of Blair, but not a word he says is factually untrue.
I don’t understand why he wouldn’t want to join TEC instead. He’d probably wind up with a mitre within weeks.
I am no fan of Mr Blair’s– nor of the Labour party. But my goodness: the sniping and in the first few comments strike me as dreadfully uncharitable. It is the height of presumption to speculate on what he may or may not unburden himself of in the sacrament of confession, or how long he will spend in the confessional.
Pigeon, Blair was a public figure, and he acted publicly against the Church’s teaching. Why then should expect no public apology for or repudiation of his public actions? The Catholic Church expected no less in ancient times. Does it expect less now?
Blair is making this move to position himself to become “President of Europe” or whatever the head EU position is. It is generally understood that if someone was to lead Europe, they would have to be Catholic.
That fully explains his past “unCatholic” actions.
-Vincent
I am not going to come between a catechumen and his director, especially when the catechumenate is an hypothesis.
Pigeon, ‘uncharitable’ is ‘Your new book stinks’ or ‘Your dress sense is terrible.’ What have I said that is untrue about Blair’s publicly undermining the social role and teaching of Catholicism? How can he receive communion in a Catholic church?
Rowan – that giant sucking sound is the AC vaporizing while you do nothing.