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Catholics welcome Blair into their fold

LONDON: Britain’s Catholic community on Sunday welcomed the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, into its fold after his conversion to the Catholic Church, though there were also some dissenting voices.

Ann Widdecombe, former Tory Minister who herself is a Catholic convert, said Mr. Blair’s position on issues like abortion and same-sex civil partnerships went “against Church teaching.”

Mr. Blair, whose wife and children were already Catholic, announced his conversion at the weekend, six months after leaving office.

It emerged on Sunday that he had embarked on the process when he was Prime Minister but it was kept under wraps because of the political and constitutional implications of a serving British Prime Minister embracing the Catholic faith.

“He has wanted to do it for sometime, and now he’s done it. It is something that matters to him a great deal,” said his former communications chief, Alastair Campbell. Mr. Campbell once famously told an American journalist who wanted to ask Mr. Blair about his faith that “we don’t do God.”

Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, head of Catholics in England and Wales, said he was “very glad” to welcome Mr. Blair into the Catholic Church.

“For a long time he has been a regular worshipper at Mass with his family and in recent months he has been following a programme of formation to prepare for his reception into full communion. My prayers are with him, his wife and family at this joyful moment in their journey of faith together.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, leader of the Anglican Church, said: “Tony Blair has my prayers and good wishes as he takes this step in his Christian pilgrimage.”

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