Posted on 04/02/2006 1:23:45 PM PDT by wagglebee
Persistent rumors that British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a Protestant, may convert to Roman Catholicism got a strong boost when the Times of London revealed Sunday that a Franciscan friar has been conducting Mass for the Blair family at Number 10 Downing St., the prime minister's official residence. Blair, nominally an Anglican, Britain's official religious denomination, has repeatedly denied reports that he plans to convert to Catholicism, his wife's religion. The Times notes that Blair participates in the Mass but does not take Holy Communion. Attending Mass has been a longtime practice of the prime minister. All of his four children share their mother's Catholicism, and the family has been quietly attending Mass not only at at home, but also at their official country residence, Chequers, since 2003, when they had to stop going to Westminster Cathedral and to other Catholic churches because of security concerns. Blair has previously denied he plans to convert to Catholicism, something that not too long ago would have been considered an outrage and a crime against the Queen, who is the official head of the Anglican Church. He says he only attends Catholic services so his family can worship together. There has never been a Catholic British prime minister, and Blair's wife, Cherie, is the first Downing St. spouse of a prime minister to be a member of the Catholic Church. Writing in the Guardian newspaper on Sept. 28, 2004, Francis Beckett and David Hencke noted that "Tony Blair today is effectively a Roman Catholic, though he has not yet, to our knowledge, been formally received into the church." Blair has been attending Mass with his family for years, and was once reprimanded for receiving Holy Communion by Cardinal Basil Hume. According to the Guardian, Blair attended Mass even before becoming prime minister. The Guardian reported that he regularly attended Mass at Westminster Cathedral, more often than not by himself, and always took Holy Communion. "The priests there knew him well," the Guardian wrote. "He would normally either attend the 9 a.m. Mass with his family, or the 5:30 p.m. Mass by himself." In 2003, when the Blairs visited the Vatican, they had a private meeting with Pope John Paul II. The pope's secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, said a Mass just for the two of them, and both received Holy Communion from him. The Guardian, speculated that the pope would not have allowed that unless he was sure his visitor was, in his heart, a Roman Catholic. "The question of Tony's faith is dormant by decision," says a Catholic who knows the Blairs well, told the Guardian. "They have decided not to let news of his Catholicism break while Tony is prime minister."
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Ping.
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you could have made your own : )
I wouldn't have minded.
Who cares? As long as he doesn't become a muslim.....
FMCDH(BITS)
I've been driving for five hours, I'm too tired to play English teacher.
Punctuation is your friend.
Very interesting, thanks for posting.
In 2003, when the Blairs visited the Vatican, they had a private meeting with Pope John Paul II. The pope's secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, said a Mass just for the two of them, and both received Holy Communion from him. The Guardian, speculated that the pope would not have allowed that unless he was sure his visitor was, in his heart, a Roman Catholic.
has there ever been a pm who wasn't church of england?
My guess is that he is a Catholic but will never admit it publicly while he is in office.
Apparently this taboo is still in place or Blair would come out and admit his conversion, as seems to be the case.
Time for the Spanish Inquisition.
kewl. Catholicism rocks.
Time for the Spanish Inquisition
So what if he does?
Disraeli comes to mind.
So what if he does?
surely, disraeli was church of england. i really doubt england would have allowed a jew to be pm.
I think Disraeli started off Jewish. But didn't he become Church of England later on?
I never read of any conversion. He was definitely Jewish when he became PM.
if memory serves, disrael's mother was italian. maria something...
Wrong, my FRiend. Google it. He was Jewish.
Harry Golden on Barry Goldwater: "I always knew that if a Jew ever got into the White House, he'd be an Episcopalian."
nah, not even in the realm of possibility that britain would have allowed a practicing jew to be pm.
the james "lizard face" carvill/bill clinton wonder boy is presently friends and allied with president bush and now wants to be a catholic as is his wife. I bet the democraps are seeing red. England is very big with contraception, abortion and population control I am wondering how he and his priest will reconcile these issues.
The son of Isaac, a Jewish Italian writer, Benjamin Disraeli had an Anglican upbringing after the age of twelve. With Jews excluded from Parliament until 1858, this enabled Disraeli to follow a career that would otherwise have been denied him. He was Britain's first, and so far only, Jewish Prime Minister
according to nndb, he was "christian"; according to wikipedia he was baptized in the church of england at a young age.
http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/victoria/section7.rhtml
http://www.victorianweb.org/religion/jewschron.html
He was of Sephardic Jewish descent but baptised into the Church of England...
If he does become Catholic,will he be a *real* Catholic or one of the Kennedy/Kerry/Pelosi types.
Play English student.
Benjamin Disraeli was Jewish.
Britain has never had a Catholic Prime Minister.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3686/is_199708/ai_n8761653
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disraeli
Any chance he will close the abortion clinics? Probably not..
Not really.In the eyes of the democRATS,there are many self-described "Catholics" who are "progressive" enough to understand that the Church's positions on abortion,homosexual marriage,etc are just so 19th Century.
Its private family business in my opinion. Leave it for the tabloids.
disraeli's grave outside the chapel window of st. michaels in buckinghamshire
http://tinyurl.com/fgtuq
Joseph Kennedy Sr. was the first Catholic PM.(just kidding)
Lock the car doors; there might be Catholics in the neighborhood.
Yes, quite a few as I recall reading. Margaret Thatcher was Methodist. Benjamin Disraeli was Jewish.
looks like there never has been a pm who wasn't church of england.
Welcome to the RC, Mr Blair! Hoorah!
oops, stand corrected. Thatch was indeed Methodist. thanks
Are talking about the guy who Britain's first half-American Prime Minister booted out of the country for having publicly sided with Hitler and his pals?
"I can't wait to see how the leftists will spin this."
They won't. They will just ignore it, if he converts. It will be a good step if he does.
it appears harold wilson (pm in 60's and 70's) was the first non-anglican.
LOL! My first thought!
Maybe if Tony becomes a Catholic, it will counterbalance Chuck's becoming a Muslim.
Disraeli was converted, more because of a dispute between his father and their rabbi than any real change of faith. If Disraeli had gone back to Judaism, he would not have been able to pursue his political career. Certainly he never denied nor disparaged his Jewish heritage.
In short, he was nominally Anglican, but I don't think we can tell what the faith of his heart was.
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