{"id":2361,"date":"2009-08-28T13:40:11","date_gmt":"2009-08-28T21:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/?p=2361"},"modified":"2009-08-28T13:40:11","modified_gmt":"2009-08-28T21:40:11","slug":"tony-blair-explains-why-he-became-catholic-ted-kennedy-wrote-pope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/religious-news\/tony-blair-explains-why-he-became-catholic-ted-kennedy-wrote-pope\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Blair Explains Why He Became Catholic; Ted Kennedy Wrote Pope"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/tonyblair.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"157\" height=\"250\" \/><br \/>\n<em>Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"\/cogwriter.htm\">COGwriter<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Tony Blair was in the news explaining why he became Catholic:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><!-- BODY,.aolmailheader     {font-size:10pt; color:black; font-family:Arial;} a.aolmailheader:link    {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a.aolmailheader:visited {color:magenta; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a.aolmailheader:active  {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a.aolmailheader:hover   {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} --><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<div><strong><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Blair explains conversion to  Catholicism<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n<div id=\"stand-first\"><strong>Former PM tells Italian  audience that church can make globalisation &#8216;our servant, not our master, lit by  God&#8217;s love and paved by God&#8217;s grace&#8217;<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong>Press Association<\/strong> &#8211; Aug 28,  2009<\/div>\n<div>Tony Blair\u00a0said his conversion to Catholicism\u00a0had  been driven by his wife, Cherie, adding that it &#8220;felt right&#8221; and &#8220;is now where  my heart is&#8221;.<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The former prime minister, who now runs the Tony Blair Faith Foundation,  switched from the Anglican church to Catholicism soon after leaving Downing  Street two years ago. His wife and children were already Catholic.<\/p>\n<p>He told the Communion and Liberation meeting in the Italian resort of Rimini  yesterday: &#8220;Ever since I began preparations to become a Catholic, I felt I was  coming home &#8230; this is now where my heart is, where I know I belong.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Blair said he was &#8220;humbled&#8221; to make a speech to such eminent delegates  because he was a &#8220;very new entrant&#8221; to the Catholic church.<\/p>\n<p>In off-the-cuff remarks reported by the London Evening Standard, he added:  &#8220;Frankly, this all began with my wife. I began to go to mass and we went  together. We could have gone to the Anglican or Catholic church \u2013 guess who  won?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As time went on, I had been going to mass for a long time &#8230; it&#8217;s difficult  to find the right words. I felt this was right for me. There was something, not  just about the doctrine of the church, but of the universal nature of the  Catholic church.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Blair, now also a Middle East quartet envoy, used his speech to tell  delegates that it was always a &#8220;pleasure&#8221; to be in Italy.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/politics\/2009\/aug\/28\/blair-conversion-catholicism\" href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/politics\/2009\/aug\/28\/blair-conversion-catholicism\">http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/politics\/2009\/aug\/28\/blair-conversion-catholicism<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The political reality is that Tony Blair could not have become Catholic as Prime Minister, but being Catholic also makes him a more likely candidate to be the President of the EU.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Whether that will happen or not remains unclear.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">But I have suspected that there is a possibility that Tony Blair MIGHT have a scripturally-related role during the Great Tribulation.\u00a0 We will see.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Some articles of possibly related interest may include<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Is Tony Blair Apocalyptic?\" rel=\"bookmark\" href=\"\/news\/prophecy\/is-tony-blair-apocalyptic\/\">Is Tony Blair Apocalyptic?<\/a> The former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom converted to Catholicism shortly after leaving his office and has been active in European affairs. What role might he play?<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/britishisrael.htm\">Anglo \u2013 America in Prophecy &amp; the  Lost Tribes of Israel<\/a> Are the Americans, Canadians, British, Scottish, Welsh, Australians, Anglo-Southern Africans, and New Zealanders descendants of Joseph? Where are the lost ten-tribes of Israel? Who are the lost tribes of Israel? Will God punish the U.S.A., Canada, United Kingdom, and other Anglo nations? Why might God allow them to be punished first?<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/when-will-the-great-tribulation-begin.htm\">Can the Great Tribulation Begin in 2009, 2010, or 2011?<\/a> Can the Great Tribulation begin today? What happens before in the \u201cbeginning of sorrows\u201d? What happens in the Gerat Tribulation and the Day of the Lord? When is the earliest that the Great Tribulation can begin? What is the Day of the Lord?<\/p>\n<p>On other matters related to Catholic news, I found the following to be of interest:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><!-- BODY,.aolmailheader     {font-size:10pt; color:black; font-family:Arial;} a.aolmailheader:link    {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a.aolmailheader:visited {color:magenta; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a.aolmailheader:active  {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a.aolmailheader:hover   {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} --><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"yn-story-title\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: large;\">After Kennedy&#8217;s Death: Silence from  the Pope<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><strong>TIME <\/strong>&#8211; Aug 27, 2009<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>There was a poignant footnote to <span id=\"lw_1251467629_0\">President Obama<\/span>&#8216;s historic July 10 meeting with <span id=\"lw_1251467629_1\">Pope Benedict XVI<\/span> at the <span id=\"lw_1251467629_2\">Vatican<\/span>. Behind closed doors in the  papal library, Obama handed Benedict a letter that <span id=\"lw_1251467629_3\">Senator Edward Kennedy<\/span> had asked him to personally  deliver to the pontiff.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"lw_1251467629_4\">White House spokesman Robert  Gibbs<\/span> later told reporters that nobody &#8211; not even the President &#8211; knew  the contents of the sealed missive. Obama himself asked Benedict to pray for  Kennedy, and called the ailing Senator afterward to fill him in on his encounter  with the 82-year-old Pope&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><span>As of yet, unlike some other world leaders, <span id=\"lw_1251467629_6\">Pope Benedict<\/span> has not commented or issued an official  communique in response to Kennedy&#8217;s death. One veteran official at the Vatican,  of U.S. nationality, expressed the view of many conservatives about the Kennedy  clan&#8217;s rapport with the <span id=\"lw_1251467629_7\">Catholic  Church<\/span>: &#8220;Why would he even write a letter to the Pope? <span id=\"lw_1251467629_8\">The Kennedys<\/span> have always been  defiantly in opposition to the <span id=\"lw_1251467629_9\">Roman  Catholic magisterium<\/span>.&#8221; Magisterium is the formal expression for the  authority of Church teaching. <\/span><span><a title=\"http:\/\/www.time.com\/time\/world\/article\/0,8599,1919064,00.html\" href=\"http:\/\/www.time.com\/time\/world\/article\/0,8599,1919064,00.html\">http:\/\/www.time.com\/time\/world\/article\/0,8599,1919064,00.html<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>It does seem a bit unusual that the late Senator Kennedy wrote Pope Benedict.\u00a0 However, I will not attempt to speculate publicly what the letter might have said as I not seen comments from any who actually know the contents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom COGwriter Tony Blair was in the news explaining why he became Catholic: Blair explains conversion to Catholicism Former PM tells Italian audience that church can make globalisation &#8216;our servant, not our master, lit by God&#8217;s love and paved by God&#8217;s grace&#8217; Press Association &#8211; Aug 28, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religious-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2362,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361\/revisions\/2362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}