As every blogging Catholic knows by now, Tony Blair was recieved into the Church. I feel ambivalent. I'd be happier if he'd done it while he was still Prime Minister--that would've been a real act of swashbuckling guts, but so be it. A lot of people are disturbed because while he was in power Blair was pro abortion, pro killing babes in embryo (stem cell experiments) and pro gay rights. He has not publicly repented these public sins. Other people feel that since so many of us are lousy Catholics anyway we can't criticize Tony. I don't know.
Does his conversion help the Church or does it confirm the cynical belief that our prelates have one law for us common folk and quite another set for the stars. Damian Thompson has this sharp post and Mark Gordon has this to say. I'm reminded of what Kathy Shaidle posted when Pavarotti died.