N
NY.Transfer.News@blythe.org
Guest
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Blair: Closet Catholic Poodle to Convert Officially
Via NY Transfer News Collective All the News that Doesn't Fit
sent by Tim Murphy (activ-l)
Reuters - Jun 22, 2007
http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL2228357820070622
Blair to convert to Catholicism
LONDON--Outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair will meet Pope Benedict at
the Vatican on Saturday in preparation for his conversion to Roman
Catholicism, newspapers reported on Friday.
The Guardian quoted unidentified sources in London and Rome as saying Blair,
who is Anglican, had decided to seek admission to the Catholic Church.
Blair is due to step down as prime minister next Wednesday, handing over
power to Chancellor Gordon Brown.
Blair's spokesman and a Vatican source have said Blair plans to go to Rome
on Saturday. A spokesman for Blair -- who is attending a European Union
summit in Brussels -- declined comment on reports in the Guardian and Daily
Telegraph that he intended to convert.
The Guardian said the timing of Blair's announcement was uncertain. The
announcement of his conversion was not expected to happen in Rome and might
be made either before or after Blair leaves office next week, it said.
The newspaper quoted informed sources as saying Blair had been prepared for
conversion by a Royal Air Force chaplain who had said private mass for the
Blair family for the last four years.
The Telegraph said it understood Blair would begin formal moves to become
Catholic as soon as possible after handing over to Brown.
"It is clear to many people that this is now going to happen," the paper
quoted an unnamed source.
Blair's wife Cherie and their four children are Catholics and there has long
been speculation that Blair might convert once he left office. Officials say
the prime minister's faith is a private matter.
Blair is believed to have taken communion from the late Pope John Paul
during a visit to the Vatican in 2003. The Vatican has never confirmed this.
The Guardian - Jun 22, 2007
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/tonyblair/story/0,,2108865,00.html
After 30 years as a closet Catholic,
Blair finally puts faith before politics
Outgoing PM seizes early opportunity to convert free of dilemmas of
public role
By Stephen Bates
religious affairs correspondent
His spiritual awakening goes back at least 30 years, to his time as an
undergraduate at Oxford, but due to political considerations Tony
Blair's conversion to Catholicism has been a long time coming.
He has been attending Catholic mass, often with his family but also
occasionally alone, since long before he became prime minister. His
wife, Cherie, is a lifelong and practising Catholic, and in accordance
with church rules their children have been brought up as Catholics and
were sent to church schools.
More than 10 years ago Mr Blair was slipping into Westminster cathedral
and occasionally taking communion, until the late Cardinal Basil Hume
told him to stop because it was causing comment as he was not a
Catholic - an injunction that bemused him at the time.
Since then he has regularly attended services conducted by Canon Timothy
Russ, parish priest of the Immaculate Heart of Mary at Great Missenden,
the nearest Catholic church to Chequers.
He is also known to have had discussions with priests such as Father
Timothy Radcliffe, former head of the worldwide Dominican order, now at
Oxford, and with Father Michael Seed, who has shephered a number of
high-profile figures, including Ann Widdecome and, allegedly, Alan
Clark, towards conversion. Fr Seed, an engaging if indiscreet figure,
has claimed to have paid regular backdoor visits to Downing Street to
talk religion, if not necessarily to advise the prime minister.
So why has it taken so long? Almost certainly because of Mr Blair's
sensitivity about the place of Catholicism in British public - and
particularly its constitutional - life. The only positions specifically
barred to Catholics are marriage to the sovereign or heir to the
throne, or becoming sovereign themselves, a legacy of the Act of
Settlement that followed the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the
deposition of the last Catholic monarch, James II; there has never been
a Catholic prime minister.
In the last 40 years Catholics have entered many senior positions in
British public life, generally without comment except among the wilder
fringes of Protestant Calvinism: in the civil service, the Foreign
Office and industry, as MPs and ministers in Conservative and Labour
cabinets. The current director general of the BBC, Mark Thompson, is a
Catholic and, briefly, four years ago, with Charles Kennedy, leader of
the Liberal Democrats, and Iain Duncan Smith, leader of the Tories, so
were the alternative prime ministers.
But the motives of Catholic politicians have traditionally been regarded
with suspicion by non-Catholics, both here and in the US, based on the
allegation that they take their orders from the Vatican rather than the
electorate. Catholic political leaders have always denied it - but the
recent antics of some bishops in the US during the 2004 presidential
campaign when they threatened to deny John Kerry communion because of
his support for abortion rights and, recently, Cardinal Keith O'Brien's
warning that he would do the same in Scotland, have tended to confirm
old suspicions.
A number of potentially divisive moral issues would have been much more
difficult if Mr Blair had been known to be a Catholic, even though his
personal beliefs have not necessarily intruded into the government's
decisions.
Ministers have enacted civil partnerships for gay couples and this year
faced down demands, particularly from the Catholic church, for exemption
from equality provisions enabling gay couples to adopt children, even
though the prime minister favoured compromise.
Equally, the government has not attempted to limit abortion rights - an
issue regarded as long settled in Britain except by some mainly Catholic
groups - or pushed for reduced time limits, even though the church
regards abortion as a sin. And it has permitted stem cell research
without conceding to Catholic opposition.
Mr Blair, like President George Bush, ignored the condemnations and
warnings of the Pope and all other church leaders over the war in Iraq.
He has been keen to expand the number of faith schools and
church-supported academies, in the face of strong opposition from
secular groups, but here again seemingly not for reasons of religious
indoctrination but because of their parental popularity.
The criticism of Ruth Kelly when she was education secretary because of
her membership of the lay sect Opus Dei - at a time when the novel The
Da Vinci Code had made the group more widely known - also showed that
the old prejudice could still be deployed. Mr Blair probably thought he
could do without the extra hassle.
He has kept his personal religious views largely out of his political
life. Ostentatious religiosity does not go down well in Britain. He
dropped his wish to end a prime ministerial broadcast on the eve of the
Iraq invasion with the words: "God bless" on the advice of Alastair
Campbell, who famously told him "We don't do God".
Explainer: Becoming a Catholic
The path to purification
Converting to Catholicism is not a straightforward or easy process, as
Tony Blair will have realised. It takes time - though how long depends
on the candidate's readiness and aptitude - and is based on the
church's assessment of their sincerity and commitment. The process is
described in a 44-page document called the Rite of Christian Initiation.
When there was a rush of conversions from Anglicanism in the early
1990s, after the Church of England's decision to ordain women priests,
there was considerable murmuring among lifelong Catholics that the
conversion of defectors such as John Gummer and Ann Widdecombe had been
too easily sanctioned by Cardinal Basil Hume, the leader of the
Catholic church in England and Wales.
That is unlikely to be the case with Mr Blair since his conversion is
clearly the result of a long period of consideration and is not due to a
particular grievance.
Adults wishing to convert undergo a period of doctrinal and spiritual
preparation with a priestly adviser to become catechumens, preparing for
admission to the church. They are no longer required to make an
abjuration of previous heresy but they do make a profession of faith
and belief that they "consciously and freely seek the living God and
enter the way of faith and conversion as the Holy Spirit opens their
hearts."
The rite says candidates are to receive help and attention, so that
"with a purified and clearer intention they may cooperate with God's
grace."
The process takes several stages of indeterminate duration: after the
period of evangelisation there follows acceptance into the order of
catechumens, then election, when the church ratifies candidates'
readiness. A "period of purification and enlightenment" follows,
usually on the eve of Easter, followed by the sacraments of initiation
and then catechesis as the candidates are allowed to participate fully
in the sacraments, such as communion.
Although conversions usually take place during the Easter period and in
public ceremonies, this need not necessarily be the case if there are
special circumstances - which the church could probably find for a
former prime minister.
================================================================
NY Transfer News Collective A Service of Blythe Systems
Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
Search Archives: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/htdig/search.html
List Archives: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/
Subscribe: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr
================================================================
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (FreeBSD)
iD8DBQFGfGAMiz2i76ou9wQRAsEkAJ9rpqdGeRCQYSxoEDdcdK/fEICsRACguHst
mnrY727RII6GLsEkBDBU1NM=
=VADy
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Hash: SHA1
Blair: Closet Catholic Poodle to Convert Officially
Via NY Transfer News Collective All the News that Doesn't Fit
sent by Tim Murphy (activ-l)
Reuters - Jun 22, 2007
http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL2228357820070622
Blair to convert to Catholicism
LONDON--Outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair will meet Pope Benedict at
the Vatican on Saturday in preparation for his conversion to Roman
Catholicism, newspapers reported on Friday.
The Guardian quoted unidentified sources in London and Rome as saying Blair,
who is Anglican, had decided to seek admission to the Catholic Church.
Blair is due to step down as prime minister next Wednesday, handing over
power to Chancellor Gordon Brown.
Blair's spokesman and a Vatican source have said Blair plans to go to Rome
on Saturday. A spokesman for Blair -- who is attending a European Union
summit in Brussels -- declined comment on reports in the Guardian and Daily
Telegraph that he intended to convert.
The Guardian said the timing of Blair's announcement was uncertain. The
announcement of his conversion was not expected to happen in Rome and might
be made either before or after Blair leaves office next week, it said.
The newspaper quoted informed sources as saying Blair had been prepared for
conversion by a Royal Air Force chaplain who had said private mass for the
Blair family for the last four years.
The Telegraph said it understood Blair would begin formal moves to become
Catholic as soon as possible after handing over to Brown.
"It is clear to many people that this is now going to happen," the paper
quoted an unnamed source.
Blair's wife Cherie and their four children are Catholics and there has long
been speculation that Blair might convert once he left office. Officials say
the prime minister's faith is a private matter.
Blair is believed to have taken communion from the late Pope John Paul
during a visit to the Vatican in 2003. The Vatican has never confirmed this.
The Guardian - Jun 22, 2007
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/tonyblair/story/0,,2108865,00.html
After 30 years as a closet Catholic,
Blair finally puts faith before politics
Outgoing PM seizes early opportunity to convert free of dilemmas of
public role
By Stephen Bates
religious affairs correspondent
His spiritual awakening goes back at least 30 years, to his time as an
undergraduate at Oxford, but due to political considerations Tony
Blair's conversion to Catholicism has been a long time coming.
He has been attending Catholic mass, often with his family but also
occasionally alone, since long before he became prime minister. His
wife, Cherie, is a lifelong and practising Catholic, and in accordance
with church rules their children have been brought up as Catholics and
were sent to church schools.
More than 10 years ago Mr Blair was slipping into Westminster cathedral
and occasionally taking communion, until the late Cardinal Basil Hume
told him to stop because it was causing comment as he was not a
Catholic - an injunction that bemused him at the time.
Since then he has regularly attended services conducted by Canon Timothy
Russ, parish priest of the Immaculate Heart of Mary at Great Missenden,
the nearest Catholic church to Chequers.
He is also known to have had discussions with priests such as Father
Timothy Radcliffe, former head of the worldwide Dominican order, now at
Oxford, and with Father Michael Seed, who has shephered a number of
high-profile figures, including Ann Widdecome and, allegedly, Alan
Clark, towards conversion. Fr Seed, an engaging if indiscreet figure,
has claimed to have paid regular backdoor visits to Downing Street to
talk religion, if not necessarily to advise the prime minister.
So why has it taken so long? Almost certainly because of Mr Blair's
sensitivity about the place of Catholicism in British public - and
particularly its constitutional - life. The only positions specifically
barred to Catholics are marriage to the sovereign or heir to the
throne, or becoming sovereign themselves, a legacy of the Act of
Settlement that followed the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the
deposition of the last Catholic monarch, James II; there has never been
a Catholic prime minister.
In the last 40 years Catholics have entered many senior positions in
British public life, generally without comment except among the wilder
fringes of Protestant Calvinism: in the civil service, the Foreign
Office and industry, as MPs and ministers in Conservative and Labour
cabinets. The current director general of the BBC, Mark Thompson, is a
Catholic and, briefly, four years ago, with Charles Kennedy, leader of
the Liberal Democrats, and Iain Duncan Smith, leader of the Tories, so
were the alternative prime ministers.
But the motives of Catholic politicians have traditionally been regarded
with suspicion by non-Catholics, both here and in the US, based on the
allegation that they take their orders from the Vatican rather than the
electorate. Catholic political leaders have always denied it - but the
recent antics of some bishops in the US during the 2004 presidential
campaign when they threatened to deny John Kerry communion because of
his support for abortion rights and, recently, Cardinal Keith O'Brien's
warning that he would do the same in Scotland, have tended to confirm
old suspicions.
A number of potentially divisive moral issues would have been much more
difficult if Mr Blair had been known to be a Catholic, even though his
personal beliefs have not necessarily intruded into the government's
decisions.
Ministers have enacted civil partnerships for gay couples and this year
faced down demands, particularly from the Catholic church, for exemption
from equality provisions enabling gay couples to adopt children, even
though the prime minister favoured compromise.
Equally, the government has not attempted to limit abortion rights - an
issue regarded as long settled in Britain except by some mainly Catholic
groups - or pushed for reduced time limits, even though the church
regards abortion as a sin. And it has permitted stem cell research
without conceding to Catholic opposition.
Mr Blair, like President George Bush, ignored the condemnations and
warnings of the Pope and all other church leaders over the war in Iraq.
He has been keen to expand the number of faith schools and
church-supported academies, in the face of strong opposition from
secular groups, but here again seemingly not for reasons of religious
indoctrination but because of their parental popularity.
The criticism of Ruth Kelly when she was education secretary because of
her membership of the lay sect Opus Dei - at a time when the novel The
Da Vinci Code had made the group more widely known - also showed that
the old prejudice could still be deployed. Mr Blair probably thought he
could do without the extra hassle.
He has kept his personal religious views largely out of his political
life. Ostentatious religiosity does not go down well in Britain. He
dropped his wish to end a prime ministerial broadcast on the eve of the
Iraq invasion with the words: "God bless" on the advice of Alastair
Campbell, who famously told him "We don't do God".
Explainer: Becoming a Catholic
The path to purification
Converting to Catholicism is not a straightforward or easy process, as
Tony Blair will have realised. It takes time - though how long depends
on the candidate's readiness and aptitude - and is based on the
church's assessment of their sincerity and commitment. The process is
described in a 44-page document called the Rite of Christian Initiation.
When there was a rush of conversions from Anglicanism in the early
1990s, after the Church of England's decision to ordain women priests,
there was considerable murmuring among lifelong Catholics that the
conversion of defectors such as John Gummer and Ann Widdecombe had been
too easily sanctioned by Cardinal Basil Hume, the leader of the
Catholic church in England and Wales.
That is unlikely to be the case with Mr Blair since his conversion is
clearly the result of a long period of consideration and is not due to a
particular grievance.
Adults wishing to convert undergo a period of doctrinal and spiritual
preparation with a priestly adviser to become catechumens, preparing for
admission to the church. They are no longer required to make an
abjuration of previous heresy but they do make a profession of faith
and belief that they "consciously and freely seek the living God and
enter the way of faith and conversion as the Holy Spirit opens their
hearts."
The rite says candidates are to receive help and attention, so that
"with a purified and clearer intention they may cooperate with God's
grace."
The process takes several stages of indeterminate duration: after the
period of evangelisation there follows acceptance into the order of
catechumens, then election, when the church ratifies candidates'
readiness. A "period of purification and enlightenment" follows,
usually on the eve of Easter, followed by the sacraments of initiation
and then catechesis as the candidates are allowed to participate fully
in the sacraments, such as communion.
Although conversions usually take place during the Easter period and in
public ceremonies, this need not necessarily be the case if there are
special circumstances - which the church could probably find for a
former prime minister.
================================================================
NY Transfer News Collective A Service of Blythe Systems
Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
Search Archives: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/htdig/search.html
List Archives: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/
Subscribe: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr
================================================================
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (FreeBSD)
iD8DBQFGfGAMiz2i76ou9wQRAsEkAJ9rpqdGeRCQYSxoEDdcdK/fEICsRACguHst
mnrY727RII6GLsEkBDBU1NM=
=VADy
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
