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There’s a good deal going on plenary indulgences….

Smartest move Tony Blair has made in many years, I’d venture to say. A person’s choice of a religion is very personal and he was fully aware, no getting around that, he converted while Prime Minister the gossip and questioning and people putting their noses into his personal beliefs, where they had no right being, would be never ending.

Blair converts to RC religion.If only he had converted to real honesty much earlier but he was very economic with the truth.

Now chasing after easy money by giving speeches that the majority of people haven`t the slightest interest in hearing.I would rather mix with the poor.Many of them have little moneybut have far more natural spirituality than Blair ever dreamed about.

I don’t see what’s so smart about it. He’s been attending Mass for years, he should have joined before he became Prime Minister. He obviously wanted to dodge the abortion issue (which is a major thing in the Catholic Church). He’s a devious moral coward.

My how your prejudice does show, England. Would you rather he converted to Islam? But of course, you can’t show your prejudice against Islam, now can you? And we all know why. Roman Catholics don’t take to the streets and threaten anything or anyone, so hey, fair game. This if fine. Free Speech RULE! But why are you afraid? In the end, Roman Catholics wish all Anglicans well as you are our brothers and sisters in Christ. In fact, we wish everyone well, regardless of their religious affiliations. Yes, you guessed, I am a Roman Catholic. Get real, let Tony Blair be who he wants to be. I like him no less nor no more now that he has made this private decision. MERRY CHRISTMAS.

fuck me i wouldnt want to be in the confessional thingy next to him, it could take for ever after all the sins he has commited…

11 RedRooster

What a laugh….confessional thingy!! Personally, I find the RC OK. Not much difference really to C of E. and in some ways a lot better than some of the other religions that take away a person’s freedom. It is Tony’s own business I agree and feel he could have turned even though being in office. He should have made a stance if he feels strongly about not doing so whilst in office.

I was amazed to find this “news” the lead item on the BBC 24 News and on Sky News TV channels on Saturday evening…

I assume this means the editors of these channels believed this was the most important news in the world at the time of the broadcast? Astounding!!

I agree with Naddo… Who gives a flying fuck?

No, I don’t know Scottish history, but the Establishment tend to be C of E, there were voices of dissent about TB attending and taking communion in RC Churches some years back, both from RC and C of E.

June

I think it was the hypocrisy of it. Or the uncertainty of it. And if you’re a left-liberal the reactionariness of it.
The Establishment would be C of E because they’re the entrenched rich, but I don’t know if it would stop you becoming Prime Minister - it’s the people that vote.

But then I don’t really know London that well, and I have a natural inclination to down play ethnic and religious divisions because I have relatives stuck on both sides of the divide in Northern Ireland and I know from bitter experience that these kind of accusations can trigger levels of rage and mistrust that escalate and make everything worse. They literally stop thinking and go into pure fight or flight and there’s no way of calming them down.

I believe in equality through stealth and friendships.

Perhaps he now really does want forgiveness and absolution for everything he did whilst in office.

Saint Tony

June

I like Pagans. They’re nice people. (I get quite New Agey myself). I can understand being through with Christianity though, the history is gruesome.

I don’t think the problem with Tony’s conversion is the choice of Church, I think the Media are annoyed that he dodged the big abortion, gay rights controversies - esp the Daily Mail, which is very pro-Catholic, very anti-gay, mostly anti-abortion and would have loved the coverage he would have generated esp. as Cardinal Keith O’Brien said no one who voted for abortion should take communion. Think of all the lost column inches!

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Mods and Admin

Given his alter-ego :Teflon, would the baptism hold any water?(sorry thats dreadful, well I’m not sorry , but its dreadful)

what a load of hypocrisy, but then both politics and religion to me seem to be full of it. I will not listen to anyone whose judgment and clarity are clouded by religion, it is dangerous stuff.

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Mods and Admin

My old gran used to say Christianity is ok? but religion is the invention of the devil - she was a die- hard indifferent

For Melissa in particular

By Luke Baker Reuters - Sunday, December 23 11:40 amLONDON (Reuters) - Former prime minister Tony Blair’s conversion to Catholicism means he is now a member of the most popular Christian denomination in Britain, according to religious research published on Sunday.

Despite England’s official break with the pope in Rome during Henry VIII’s reign more than 400 years ago, making Anglicanism and the Church of England dominant, Catholicism is now the most practiced faith in the land.

A survey by the group Christian Research published in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper showed that around 862,000 worshippers attended Catholic Mass each week in 2006, exceeding the 852,000 who went to Church of England services.

Attendance at Anglican services has almost halved over the past 40 years as the country has grown steadily more secular, the research showed, with only Pentecostalism showing any rise in popularity among Christian denominations.

While attendance figures for both Catholic and Anglican services are declining, Catholic numbers are slipping by a lesser degree as new migrants arrive from east Europe and parts of Africa, boosting Catholic congregations.

“When a former prime minister becomes a Catholic, that must be a sign that Catholicism really has come in from the cold in this country,” Catherine Pepinster, the editor of Catholic weekly The Tablet, wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.

“I would hope that my fellow Catholics will welcome Tony Blair into the Church as they welcome other converts.”

Blair, now a Middle East peace envoy, is not the first high-profile Briton to convert to Catholicism.

The author Evelyn Waugh, the son of an Anglican churchman, converted in the 1930s, and novelist Graham Greene was a noted convert, although his books often explored doubts over faith.

Blair’s conversion was long expected — his wife and four children are practicing Catholics — but it has not come without a degree of criticism.

While in office, he frequently championed stem-cell research, was in support of civil partnerships for gay couples and has voted in favour of abortion, all issues on which the Catholic faithful hold strong positions.

Politicians, including some who have converted themselves, didn’t question the sincerity of the conversion, made in a private ceremony on Friday, but wondered what it said about the stances he had taken on issues while in office.

Mostly though, the reaction was muted.

“In the 19th century when someone ‘poped’ it caused great scandal,” wrote the Right Reverend Richard Harries, a former bishop of Oxford, in the Observer newspaper.

“But in recent decades a fundamental shift has taken place … If someone shifts their allegiance, well, as Jesus said, ‘there are many dwelling places in my father’s house’.”

(Editing by Alison Williams)

You were saying, what exactly?