Former British Prime Minister Converts to Catholicism

Back in June, I wrote about Tony Blair's last official meeting as prime minister of Britain with Pope Benedict XVI and discussed the persistent rumors that, after leaving office, Mr. Blair intended to convert to Roman Catholicism, the faith of his wife and four children.

Now, on Friday, December 21, 2007, the former prime minister has done just that, in a private Mass celebrated by the archbishop of Westminster, Cormac Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor. His conversion has been greeted with joy by many Catholics in Britain, who still remain a small, but increasingly influential minority of self-identified Christians. As Catholic Online reports:

According to the last census in 2005, 72% of United Kingdom [residents] declared they were Christians. Of that number, over 27% claim they are Anglicans and 5.5% say they are Catholic. A very small portion of that number, however, actually attends worship on a regular basis. In regular Sunday attendance, Anglicans and Catholics are almost equal in number with 875,000 attending a Catholic Mass and 867,000 present in Anglican parishes.

Other Catholics, however, including Anne Widdecombe, a former Conservative Party government minister and herself a convert, have taken a more skeptical stance. As Widdecombe told ABC.net.au:

"If you look at Tony Blair's voting record in the House of Commons, he's gone against Church teaching on more than one occasion, on things for example like abortion . . .

"My question would be has he changed his mind on that?

"Because at the point of reception to the Catholic Church you are obliged to say 'I believe everything the church teaches to be revealed truth'."

The London Telegraph reports that Fr. Timothy Russ, the priest at Mr. Blair's parish, "disclosed that Mr Blair had discussed becoming a Catholic with him" three years ago, going on to note that "Fr Russ added that Mr Blair, whose views on a range of issues from abortion to stem cell research are at odds with traditional Church teaching, had 'some way to go' on important moral issues."

As I noted in June, Pope Benedict had discussed the Iraq War with Mr. Blair--a war which, as prime minister, Mr. Blair had strongly backed, while Pope Benedict (like Pope John Paul II before him) had equally strongly opposed it. Moreover, the Prime Minister Blair's Labour government had backed laws in favor of abortion, same-sex marriage, adoption by homosexual couples, and embryonic stem-cell research, all of which contradict Catholic teaching.