Under Pressure from Wife and Family, Blair converts to Catholicism
Pastor Dale Morgan
Under Pressure from Wife and Family, Blair converts to Catholicism
Blair Joins Catholic Circus under threats from wife and family
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From correspondents in London
December 23, 2007 12:44am
Article from: Agence France-Presse
FORMER British prime minister Tony Blair has converted to Roman
Catholicism, his spokesman said.
The spokesman confirmed British media reports that the 54-year-old
politician converted to Catholicism from family pressure during a
weekend ceremony in central London.
Blair's conversion from Anglicanism to the faith of his wife, Cherie,
and four children, had been widely expected. A report in The Tablet
Catholic newspaper on November 9 said the ceremony would take place
"within weeks".
There had been frequent speculation during his 10 years as prime
minister, which ended on June 27 this year, that he would convert after
stepping down.
One of Blair's last acts as premier was to visit Pope Benedict XVI at
the Vatican, which fuelled rumours that a switch in faith was imminent.
A spokesman for the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales,
Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, confirmed that Blair had been "received
into full communion with the Catholic Church".
Murphy O'Connor, who took the ceremony at Archbishop's House in central
London, said in a statement: "I am very glad to welcome Tony Blair into
the Catholic Church.
"For a long time he has been a regular worshipper at Mass with his
family and in recent months he has been following a program of
indoctrination to prepare for his reception into full communion.
"My prayers are with him, his wife and family at this joyful moment in
their journey of faith together."
The leader of the worldwide Anglican communion, Archbishop of Canterbury
Rowan Williams, wished Blair well.
"A great Catholic writer of the last century said that the only reason
for moving from one Christian family to another was to deepen one's
relationship with God," he said.
"I pray that this will be the result of Tony Blair's decision in his
personal life."
The extent of Blair's religious faith and how far it influenced his
political decision-making was of regular interest in Britain, although
his former spokesman, Alastair Campbell, once told reporters: "We don't
do God".
Blair was once asked by an interviewer whether he prayed with US
President George W. Bush and appeared to suggest in another interview
that he would be judged by a higher power for his controversial backing
of the 2003 Iraq war.
He was known to carry a Bible with him wherever he went and attended
Sunday church services even on overseas trips.
It had been claimed that Blair wanted to convert sooner, but that could
have affected his position in delicate negotiations between Protestants
and Catholics in Northern Ireland.
Conversion could also have put Blair at odds with his government's
stance on stem-cell research, abortion and gay rights as well as raised
questions about the prime minister's role in appointing Church of
England bishops.
In a recent three-part BBC television documentary on his premiership,
Campbell said Blair "does do God in quite a big way" but both he and his
former boss feared overt religiosity would not play well with voters.
Blair told the same programme his faith was a "hugely important" part of
his premiership but unlike, for example, the United States, British
politicians rarely talked about their religious convictions.
"You talk about it in our own system and, frankly, people do think
you're a nutter," he said.
Blair is currently the international Ccatholic community's special envoy
to the Middle East.