Tony Blair converts to Catholicism - as immigration means Britain is now a Catholic country

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• Immigration from Eastern Europe means Catholics now outnumber Anglicans in Britain

Tony Blair announced his conversion to Catholicism yesterday after a controversial 25-year spiritual journey.

The former Prime Minister – previously a High Church Anglican – was welcomed into the faith by the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, after Communion on Friday.

Blair's conversion comes as new figures show that that immigration from Catholic countries has meant that Britain now has more Catholics than Anglicans.

During his time in office, Mr Blair had consistently denied any plan to convert to his wife Cherie's religion – but his desire to do so was no secret among his friends and advisers.

They say he only held off for political and personal reasons: there has never been a Catholic Prime Minister and many of Labour's most reforming policies, such as those covering gay marriages and stem cell research, were opposed by Catholics.

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Convert: Tony Blair at the Vatican in June with Pope Benedict XVI, who is said to be 'delighted with the news'

But at the start of this year, with his exit date from Downing Street set for the summer, he started taking formal instruction classes on conversion from the cardinal's private secretary, Monsignor Mark O'Toole.

Yesterday Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor, head of the Catholic church in England and Wales, said he was delighted to welcome Mr Blair, who is now dealing with the complexities of religious conflict as a Middle East peace envoy.

The Cardinal said: "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."

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Blair's counsellor: Father Michael Seed with a friend at a party

Today a study by the organisation Christian Research has found that the large number of EU nationals from Eastern Europe who have immigrated to the UK in recent years have swelled the numbers attending masses across the country.

Estimates for church attendances in 2006, based on previous years' figures, reveal 861,800 Catholics attended services every Sunday compared with 852,500 Anglican worshippers.

Peter Brierley, former executive director of Christian Research, who helped compile the data due to be published in the new year, said: "Part of the reason for the increase is you have got large numbers of immigrants coming in from Catholic countries especially Poland.

"There's been a substantial number of Poles coming in and 85 per cent of them are Catholic so that's going to boost your numbers."

Mr Blair's interest in religion is said to have been sparked as a young man by the trauma of seeing his father suffer a stroke and his mother die from cancer.

At Oxford University his spiritual mentor was Peter Thompson, a 36-year-old Anglican. But after meeting Cherie he started to fall more under the influence of her faith.

Although the pair married in a Church of England service, Mr Blair was soon joining his wife in Catholic Communion – something he tried to do surreptitiously in case it damaged his political ambitions.

It is understood that Mr Blair's determination to switch faiths hardened a few years ago after he suffered a traumatic disturbance to his family life.

Father Michael Seed, an adviser to the Cardinal, counselled Mr and Mrs Blair throughout the crisis and soon after started conducting private Masses for them at Downing Street.

Last night, Vatican sources said Mr Blair's conversion had been "a matter of time" and pointed out that he had visited Rome four times in four years, more than any previous serving Prime Minister.

When Mr Blair last met Pope Benedict XVI in June, just days after he left Downing Street, he gave the Pontiff an update on his progress towards conversion.

One senior Vatican source said: "The Holy Father and the whole of the Vatican are delighted with the news. It is always a great joy to welcome a convert."

Head of the Anglican church, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, bade farewell to the former Prime Minister with a more ambiguous tribute.

He said: "Tony Blair has my prayers and good wishes as he takes this step in his Christian pilgrimage.

"A great Catholic writer of the last century said that the only reason for moving from one Christian family to another was to deepen one's relationship with God."

He added: "I pray that this will be the result of Tony Blair's decision in his personal life."

Mr Blair was evasive about his spiritual beliefs during his time in office because of the potential political complications. His former Press spokesman Alastair

Campbell once told reporters: "We don't do God," and Mr Blair reacted with irritation when asked by Jeremy Paxman if he and George Bush prayed together.

As recently as 2004, he was still insisting that he had no plans to convert and claimed he only attended Catholic services so that he and his family could worship together.

There was also the further complication of the 1829 Emancipation Act, which says that no Catholic adviser to the monarch can hold civil or military office, and a potential conflict with his role in choosing Church of England bishops.

Tory MP Ann Widdecombe, who converted to Catholicism in 1993, said: "At the point you are received you have to say individually and out loud, 'I believe everything the church teaches to be revealed truth'.

"That means if you previously had any problems with church teaching, as Tony Blair obviously did over abortion, as he did again over Sunday trading, you would have to say you changed your mind.

"And I think people will want to know that he did go through that process, because otherwise it will seem as if the church did make an exception for somebody just because of who he is."

John Smeaton of The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said Mr Blair had promoted "abortion, experimentation on unborn embryos, including cloned embryos, and euthanasia by neglect."

He added: "SPUC is writing to Tony Blair to ask him whether he has repented of the anti-life positions he has so openly advocated throughout his political career."

 

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