| Bush and Blair... Friends in the Boat Crossing the Tiber? |
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When Tony Blair officially converted to Catholicism this past December, the news was treated with hostility or scorn in Britain. This in part because of the near universal (really, it was surprising to me how much the culture of Europe has changed) turn away from Christianity (religion) in post-war England. Universal in that the burgeoning atheism in the home of Christendom is not limited to the posh set, or academe.
In the United States, the news of Blair's conversion was met with smiles in some corners but mostly indifference (not wanting to add more fuel to our toxic "celebrity obsessed" media addiction), or outright scorn as some critics viewed Blair as a poseur of the worst sort considering his positions and policies while in charge of the government of a nominally Christian country for ten years. The Catholic World Report went the farthest by implying that Blair's conversion was a decadent lie on material matters of faith and morals motivated by "Cafeteria Catholic" styled Euro decadence and marital convenience.
But the former Prime Minister of England did convert to Catholicism, and it seems he is aggressively attempting to live his faith in the public arena as his new job of Envoy to the Middle East, and director of his new foundation. And he was never a scandal along the lines of Nancy Pelosi or Rudy Giuliani. See this Time magazine profile for more details on Mr. Blair. It can not be exaggerated how big a shock this must be that the former Prime Minister of the land of official schism from the Catholic Church, with the history of Henry VIII, St. Thomas More, Mary Queen of Scots, a history that is not ancient past as just last month a woman had to renounce her Catholic faith to marry a minor twig of the Royal Family tree.
Meanwhile, America's about to be former head of state President George W. Bush continues to send signals that he might join his friend Prime Minister Blair as a recent convert to Catholicism. Since his unusual and warm greeting of Pope Benedict XVI on the tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base this past April, plus is effusive remarks at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast the same week, I have jokingly wondered what the odds were President Bush would ask his brother or the pope to be his RCIA sponsor? This week, there was unprecedented return hospitality as the President stayed with Pope Benedict at the Vatican.
I hope my speculation on the spiritual journeys of these two political leaders is not gossip, or to put their fates above those of the billions of other humans on the world. I just hope to spark thought that in this political year, when CNN's Lou Dobbs almost had a stroke on air while criticizing Pope Benedict XVI for having an opinion contrary to his demagogic preferences on American immigration, that all citizens seriously take their full selves and engaged consciouces into the voting booth this fall. Our leaders apparently are evaluating their policy options in a similarly holistic engagement of their minds, bodies and spirits. |
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