Call yourself a Catholic? Convert Blair challenged on abortion stance

 Add your view

Tony Blair was challenged yesterday to explain his record on abortion, embryo testing and gay rights after announcing that he had converted to Catholicism.

Some Catholics condemned his previous support for causes which were apparently inconsistent with Church doctrine.

But they drew a rebuke from senior figures in the Church, who said the Pope's welcome for the new recruit was the final word.

Scroll down for more...

All roads lead to Rome: Mr Blair meeting Pope Benedict XVI in June, when he was still an Anglican

Sources said Mr Blair's conversion 'is not retrospective' and that he does not have to account for his actions and beliefs in the past.

The former Prime Minister, with his family alongside him, made his profession of faith in a service led by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, leader of the Roman Catholics in England and Wales, in his private chapel on Friday night.

The ceremony followed four months of formal preparation under the supervision of the Cardinal's private secretary, Monsignor Mark O'Toole.

There has long been speculation that Mr Blair, an Anglican whose wife Cherie and four children are Catholic, would join them by switching over after years of publicly leaning towards Rome.

One of his last journeys as Premier was to the Vatican to meet Pope Benedict XVI.

He gave the Pontiff a signed photograph of Cardinal Newman, Britain's most famous convert to Catholicism.

Over his decade in office Mr Blair frequently attended Catholic Mass with his family, and was once rebuked for taking communion while still an Anglican. Mrs Blair stood as his 'sponsor' on Friday night.

Despite his private faith, as Labour leader and Prime Minister he oversaw legal changes which were fiercely opposed by the Church, including civil partnerships and embryo research.

Britain has never had a Catholic in Number 10, and Mr Blair is known to have taken advice on the constitutional implications.

His former spokesman Alastair Campbell once famously told reporters: "We don't do God", but has since said that his ex-boss "does do God in quite a big way".

Scroll down for more...

Cherie Blair at a 2005 memorial service for Pope John Paul II

John Smeaton, of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said: "During his premiership Tony Blair became one of the world's most significant architects of the culture of death, promoting abortion, experimentation on unborn embryos, including cloned embryos, and euthanasia by neglect.

"SPUC is writing to Tony Blair to ask him whether he has repented of the anti-life positions he has so openly advocated."

Former Tory minister Ann Widdecombe, herself a convert, raised Mr Blair's previous support for embryo research, gay 'marriage' and abortion, saying: "My question would be, has he changed his mind?"

Former Labour minister Peter Kilfoyle, a Catholic, said: "If he showed just one ounce of contrition over Iraq, then he would be closer to the body of morality that is the Catholic Church."

But a Church source said: "Whatever he previously believed or did is a matter for individual conscience. The Vatican welcomed his decision 'with respect and joy', so if the Pope is welcoming it, it seems a little strange that some English Catholics are questioning it."

Church attendances among Catholics in the UK have received a major boost from the massive influx of Polish workers.

The arrival of more than 600,000 Poles since their country joined the EU in 2004 appears to have dramatically slowed the long-term decline in congregations at Catholic churches.

Roman Catholics who attend Mass have outnumbered Church of England congregations on Sunday mornings for some years although the gap between the two denominations is closing, a study of 37,000 parishes by the organisation Christian Research has found.

 

What's on today   What's on tomorrow

Receive our newsletter