Tony Blair to convert to Catholicism

[kurth]

Blair 'to become a Catholic after stepping down'

By Andrew Grice

Tony Blair is "certain" to become a Roman Catholic shortly after he steps down from office next week, friends of the Prime Minister have said. They believe it will happen "sooner rather than later".

Mr Blair is likely to discuss his conversion with Pope Benedict XVI, with whom he will hold talks in Rome tomorrow after attending his last summit of European Union leaders in Brussels. Aides say that in the private one-to-one meeting, he will also discuss his plans to set up a Blair Inter-Faith Foundation aimed at fostering closer links between people from different religions.

There have been persistent rumours that the Prime Minister would convert to Catholicism but Downing Street has always insisted that he remains a member of the Church of England. Now friends say Mr Blair will formalise his already close affiliation to the Catholic Church. They say his "spiritual guide" in making the decision has been his wife, Cherie. They have brought up their four children as Catholics.

Before he became Prime Minister, Mr Blair regularly took communion with his wife and children at a Catholic church in Islington, north London. He ceased doing so in public after an intervention by the late Cardinal Hume, when he was leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. It is believed that Mr Blair decided to remain an Anglican while he was Prime Minister because of the possible legal and political difficulties of converting while in office.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/article2694903.ece

[ixion]

1. probably so he can take a cushy job at the Vatican

:rofl:

[Warren Stupidity]

2. Was there anything not phony about tony? nt.

[ShortnFiery]

3. Two words: Opus Dei

The Poodle's transformation is almost complete:

http://www.mond.at/opus.dei/opus.dei.uo.faq.html#bad

[Demeter]

8. Or Mad Cow Disease

Bovine spongiform whatever. encephalitis

[ShortnFiery]

14. Well the way Toe-Neeee SACRIFICED himself & the UK for our Dear Leader, he'd be ideal for the former

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/05/18/code_wideweb__470x305,0.jpg

[Selatius]

4. No conversion will wipe clean the blood and shame of killing innocent people in war.

He will carry that until his end no matter which church he joins.

[madokie]

9. very true

the stench of blood on his hands will not wash off nor will it go away

[Cha]

15. Oh yeah, then toady can

confess every week.

[Horse with no Name]

5. Not directed to the OP

But I don't give 10 shits what religion Blair is.
He is a war criminal.
I can't imagine ANY God embracing that.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

6. omg - what's buddy bush gonna say? nt

[malaise]

7. He'll still be a war criminal n/t

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

10. Negotiating with the Pope for the possession of his soul?

Or perhaps just trying to get an equitable price for it.

:shrug:

[karlrschneider]

11. He could convert to the Church of The Assholians...wouldn't have to do a thing.

:eyes:

[RB TexLa]

12. This has been pretty common knowledge. And in part reason why the Bloody Sunday report

was assured to not see the light of day as long as Blair was PM. I actually don't think they will ever release it.

[Swede]

13. Good for him.

If his wife and kids are all Catholic,it makes sense.

[DemBones DemBones]

26. Exactly, and it's nobody else's business.

I don't sit in Mass thinking about what sins others might have committed; that's between them and God.

It's been widely discussed for years that Tony Blair would become Catholic once he left office. It's ridiculous that the UK won't allow a Catholic to hold high office.

If Henry VIII hadn't had the hots for Anne Boleyn, England would still be Catholic. Henry made himself head of the Church of England so he could declare that his first marriage was invalid! (The pope would not nullify his marriage to Catharine of Aragon, which had lasted 20-some years before Henry decided Anne Boleyn could give him a son. She couldn't, so off with her head!)

[Gabi Hayes]

16. '' 'scuse me while I whip this out''

[Owl]

17. Who cares?

[terisan]

18. Inter faith work? Is that what he calls his Iraq venture? nt

[Benhurst]

19. This makes sense. I think one of the popes is supposed to

bring the Anti-Christ into the Church. Maybe this is a trial run.

[Posteritatis]

20. The legal aspect's interesting

The article implies that Catholics are still forbidden to serve in senior roles in the British government or military, which is a little surprising. I wonder if that'd survive a court these days, since the law's to the point of being kinda old even by British standards.

(And I love the ads I got on this thread - one for converting to Judaism, one for converting to Catholicism, one for converting to Islam, and some Swedish thing I can't read whose title just said "Bad.")

[UTUSN]

21. Yaas, my nun sibling has been saying this for years - now Cherie is a problem, ain't she?

But then, so is HE!!1 An avowed war criminal?!!1 But that doesn't bother Vatican,do it?!!1

[Hardrada]

23. He was just following orders.

As the Pope used to do.

Ein Befehl ist ein Befehl!

[Vidar]

22. He wouln't convert to Vatican II, but Opus Dei suits the fascist just fine.

[dflprincess]

24. This was dealt with in the BBC production "The Trial of Tony Blair"

he wanted to convert so he could go to confession and get absolution. He's so anxious for this that he convinces the priest that he shouldn't have to go through the nearly year long conversion process, but be put on the "fast track". (Apparently no one told him, like the nuns told us, that you may fool the priest into giving you absolution, but you can't fool God and you won't be forgiven unless you are truly sorry for your sins.)

There's a great scene where he finally goes to confession, but can't bring himself to complete the act and he runs out of the church.

[Warren Stupidity]

25. 'cause the anglicans don't give dispensations?

Hey actually maybe the Brits can revive their religious wars of like 1550-1750 or so and start hacking each other up over tooth fairies again.

[DemBones DemBones]

27. The Catholic Church doesn't give dispensations for war crimes,

or any other crimes, or for sins. You are probably thinking of absolution. When a Catholic confesses his or her sins, the priest will assign a penance and then give him/her absolution. Absolution does NOT mean you will not be judged by God after you die. We will all be judged.

Dispensations are permission to be excused from an obligation such as fasting during Lent. People who should not fast for medical reasons may receive a dispensation from their priest permitting them to eat normally.

[Warren Stupidity]

31. It was an historical reference to the era of the reformation in england

wherein the refusal of the pope to grant a dispensation to Henry to get him out of his marriage lead directly to the religous conflicts that consumed england for the next 200 years or so. But I indeed misspoke as of course the anglican church picked right up with the dispensations that the pope was disempowered from.

At any rate the point was just my amusement that nearly 500 years after england broke with the catholic church, Tony Blair has to sneak around being a crypto catholic so as not to, it appears, upset the aristocracy and restart the religious wars.

[Gloria]

28. In The Trial of Tony Blair, the opening scene was of him in the

confessional. He couldn't confess to his Iraq crimes and ran out of the church...right into the truck which was being use to extradite him to the Hague.

[Eurobabe]

29. Was that show prescient or WHAT? So will * enter Rehab??

Enquiring minds want to know.

[LeftishBrit]

30. Big surprise

We knew here that he was essentially a Catholic convert for a long time; but he could not do so formally while in office, because of the political repercussions. I don't think that a Catholic would have difficulty in being elected PM, especially now that the Northern Ireland conflict has died down to a large degree; but converting while in office would create political problems. British politicians, unlike American ones, are not expected to get strongly involved in religious issues. As one of Blair's advisers remarked at one point, "We don't do God".

[book_worm]

32. Yeah, so what? I couldn't care less.

[DFW]

33. I saw this in the paper here, but ...

I still don't understand why it is news.

[mitchum]

34. Opus Dei (n/t)