The Sunday Telegraph reports today that former UK Prime Minister "Tony Blair was on the brink of announcing his conversion to Catholicism on a visit to the Pope until a last-ditch intervention by Britain's Roman Catholic leader." The Telegraph notes that "Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, advised Mr Blair that it would be unwise and inappropriate to use such a high-profile occasion for such an important private event, particularly coming just days before he was due to leave Downing Street."
Faithful Catholics may have breathed a great sigh of relief for the brief stay from scandal city.
Tony Blair, while he may be a star candidate for entry into any pop religion, would be in his current state of unrepentant pusher of abortion and homosexuality a scandal to the Catholic Church. We have enough of those kind of politicians already, the last thing we need is a very public entrance of another high profile abortion advocate into the Catholic Church.
Now don't get me wrong, the Catholic Church is full of sinners, including yours truly. But the difference is that Catholics are supposed to acknowledge their wrongdoings as such. Vices are vices and not virtues.
The Catholic who falls into sexual sin, and even has an abortion in desperation but truly repents of her actions is far better off than the Catholic politician who, while never darkening the door of an abortion clinic, stands up for 'a woman's right to choose' believing his position is a virtuous one.
Tony Blair's record on life and family is abysmal but worse than that he remains committed to his anti-Catholic stands on those crucial issues.
The April 2003 cover issue of the UK Spectator covered Blair's stand of life issues. Peter Oborne wrote: "The Prime Minister has never once voted with the pro-life lobby and has voted 14 times for the pro-choice lobby in Parliament. In 1990, during the debates leading up to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, he voted on three occasions to extend the time limit for abortion to birth on grounds of handicap. In December 2000 he gave personal backing to regulations permitting stem-cell research on human embryos; and his government enthusiastically promotes the morning-after pill."
On family issues, Osborne noted: "The married-couples allowance has been abolished, funding has been switched from groups backing marriage to those taking a relaxed view of any kind of relationship, the benefits system has been changed to target all money for children regardless of family structure, etc., etc. Far from being morally neutral on the family, the Blair government has actively discriminated against it."
His record on life and family issues have not improved to date. In one of his outgoing speeches as Prime Minister, in September last year Mr Blair said: "America does not want stem cell research, we do, we welcome it here." Mr Blair was referring to embryonic stem cell research, which kills embryonic children in order to extract their stem cells.
One of Blair's last acts as Prime Minister was presiding over and rejoicing over the passage of the Sexual Orientation Regulations, which are seen as one of the most serious threats to the Christian faith in the last century. Christian schools under the regulations will be forbidden from teaching against homosexuality.
Blair announced that there would be no exceptions to the regulations, even for religious reasons.
The Telegraph reports that Blair will now likely enter the Catholic Church at Easter next year. The paper adds this interesting tidbit: "Despite being asked by Cardinal Basil Hume, the previous Archbishop of Westminster, to desist from receiving Communion because he has not converted to Catholicism, Mr Blair received Communion from Fr Michael Seed while he was at Downing Street and from Fr Timothy Russ and Fr Walsh at Chequers."
Don't we have enough pro-abortion politicians in the Catholic Church causing scandal by receiving Holy Communion? Do we really have to import another one? Just how much more does Mr. Blair have to do to convince Church authorities that he is dangerously anti-Catholic, anti-Christian?
