Tony Blair joins Catholic Church
Former prime minister Tony Blair has left the Anglican Church to become a Roman Catholic.
His wife and children are already Catholic and there had been speculation he would convert after leaving office.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Conner, who led the service to welcome Mr Blair, said he was "very glad" to do so.
Last year, Mr Blair, who is now a Middle East peace envoy, said he had prayed to God when deciding whether or not to send UK troops into Iraq.
And one of Mr Blair’s final official trips while prime minister was a visit to the Vatican in June where he met Pope Benedict XVI.
‘Regular worshipper’
Mr Blair was received into full communion with the Catholic Church during Mass at Archbishop’s House, Westminster, on Friday.
Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, who is the head of Catholics in England and Wales, said: "I am very glad to welcome Tony Blair into the Catholic Church.
Fr. Z. has some cogent remarks about this in consideration of Mr. Blairs past support for homosexuality and abortion.
At the same time, none of us are finished products yet. I suspect Mr. Blair or other politicians will not change his positions if they are constantly blasted with nastiness. Persuasion is needed. In no way does this condone public denial of Catholic doctrine. I am trying to underscore the fallen dimension of our human experience.
Thus, I am glad that Mr. Blair desired closer unity with the Catholic Church and acted on it. However, I would like some clarifications.
Hopefully we will get some clarifications on this. If he has not changed his positions that are contrary to Church teaching I would certainly like to know how the Cardinal would justify brining him into the Church at this time. As I have mentioned before in connection to this is that one of my favorite stories from Alice Von Hildebrand’s book "Soul of a Lion" about her husband Dietrich is that when he was taking private instructions to come into the Church he announced to the priest that he was ready to enter the Church. The priest knowing Dietrich’s opposition to the Church’s teaching on contraception told him he would not bring him into the Church unto he accepted this. Dietrich then made an act of faith and said that he believes all that the Church teaches and then later became a great teaching on the truth of the evil of contraception.
None of us enter the Church perfected, though I would think that when we make the Profession at Faith when being received into the Church and saying that we believe all that she teaches that there should be a reasonable chance that we are telling the truth. To bring someone in that we knew to not hold all that the Church teaches would be to have them perjure themselves before God.
I sincerely hope that he has had a change of heart and if not that he will in the future.
Update: I see that Diogenes is on the same page as myself on this:
Tony Blair recants position on abortion!
Well he did, didn’t he? And somehow I just missed the headline?
In order to be received into the Catholic Church, one must make a profession of faith, affirming that one believes all that the Church teaches. And the Church teaches that support for abortion is gravely wrong, and so now we know– don’t we?– that Blair recognizes his past public stance was gravely wrong. Don’t we?
Don’t we?
Hello? Hello?
21 comments
Concerning this topic and the ABC’s “legend” articles, I’ve been somewhat surprised at the number of angry atheists posting posting comments at the UK news blogs. All this news about faith, conversion, the meaning of Christmas, etc. has certainly brought out the worst in ’em.
As for Tony Blair, God bless him and his family and may they enjoy many happy Christmases together.
Welcome to Tony Blair and his family as they join the rest of us imperfect Catholics!
For some, including my former non-Catholic self, there is a discrepancy between saying “abortion is always an evil/never a good” and saying that it should be outlawed, however contradictory that may sound. Upon entering the Church, I realized that I was bound to take on faith the Church’s teaching on these and other matters I previously rejected, and if necessary to struggle the rest of my life to understand them. If this is, as I suppose, what Mr. Blair has chosen to do, must he hold a press conference about it? And who are we to suppose he hasn’t? The “we’re all imperfect” line is true, but said with a pinch too much smugness for my liking. It actually implies a measure of doubt while making the pretense that we are not being judgmental. I’m not comfortable with that.
I didn’t intend to sound smug, Literacy-Chic.
Lynn
he’s come to the Truth of the Catholic Faith. :)! I will not judge on his actions of the past.
Thank you, Joe! My sentiments exactly!
Even if Mr Blair did publicly repudiate his previous views on abortion and homosexuality, do you suppose the secular media would report it?
Not a chance; we can only hope that he had good instruction in preparation for becoming Catholic and that he understands and accepts Catholic teachings.
1. Does something uncool, not obviously in his worldly interests.
2 Gets attacked for precisely the same act by intolerant atheists and intolerant Catholics.
May God help him!
Good observation, Leo. May he find faith and peace in the Church anyway!
This is definitely a case where “judge not or you shall be judged” needs to be quoted. It is one thing to criticize a politician’s public actions, quite another thing to assume that he has not confessed them.
Melody,
When someone has taken public positions and in fact is responsible for approving legislation involving abortion and same-sex marriage, they are also responsible to help to remove scandal if they have in fact repented of these acts.
If he has confesses these sins he has in fact been absolved of these sins, but this does not mean he does not need to make restitution on these issues. Surely part of this restitution would be to publicly renounce his past actions.
Ah, I see your point. I had not thought of it as penance.
Melody,
I often see the Scripture you cite misinterpreted. If you look to our society and culture, you will readily see that it is the LAW that decides if something is right or wrong; judgement imposes a penalty, sentence if you will, for the wrong done. But the law is the deciding factor between right and wrong.
When you tell someone to “judge not lest you shalt be judged” then you imply they are passing sentence, or penalty, which no one on earth has within their power (for matters of spirituality).
The Lord has given us the Law. Stating that someone has broken the law may very well be calumny, but is not judgement. In fact, it could well be a spiritual work of mercy: instructing the ignorant, admonoshing sinners, and all that.
That said, may Mr. Blair be innundated with the graces of the Most Blessed Trinity, now and forevermore.
Well put Fiesty. Mark Shea also put it well:
Let’s start with the loudest voice: “Don’t judge”. We are bound to obey that,
but we are also bound to understand what it means. It does not mean, as our
culture takes it to mean, “Remain agnostic about the possibility of ever knowing
what is right and wrong.” It means “Don’t play God. Don’t imagine you know the
souls of others and what motivated their choices, how culpable they are, etc.”
The funny thing is, our culture is ready to play God all the time, while
remaining unable to say if there is such a thing as right and wrong.
Just stopped in to wish you all a Merry Christmas!
As far as Blair goes: we should not deign to know what is in his heart. We should welcome him with very open arms.
Of course we should welcome him with open arms.
At the same time, someone should get out in front of him at his next press conference and ask, “Before you became Catholic, you voted to promote baby-killing and buggery. Now that you’ve become Catholic, will you be taking equally public steps against baby-killing and buggery, for example, by publicly renouncing your earlier votes?”
The guy’s been through Question Time at the dispatch box, he can handle it.
It is kind of worrying…
Maybe I’m mistaken, but I remember hearing/reading that Mrs. Blair is a supporter of abortion. If Mr. Blair recanted that would make one Blair in communion with the Church.
“I suspect Mr. Blair or other politicians will not change his positions if they are constantly blasted with nastiness. Persuasion is needed.”
Nastiness is unnecessary, but so is human persuasion, I think. Truth is necessary. One would assume that if an adult is received into the Catholic Church, he/she has recognized and is attracted to, truth. In that case it is the spiritual norm (i’ve never heard otherwise) to feel remorse privately and publicly for all one’s past offenses and disordered convictions. It isn’t wrong to be WAITING for that sound from Tony Blair. And it is disturbing that he isn’t BLARING the truth from the rooftop.
May we wait patiently, but not be kept waiting to long so that we can REJOICE sincerely in this miracle of conversion and in this new addition to the Church.
this is such red meat for some of you. your catholicism is an impoverished mix of will-to-power and gender-sex obssession. this i will never understand.