With Converts Like This, Who Needs Heretics?
Our Lady of Akita alert

I'm going to violate one of my own rules. I'm posting an article in it's entirety. Yes, I think it's that good... and that important for my fellow Bloglodytles to read.

From The Telegraph (London, UK);

Do Tony and Cherie have a mission to change the Catholic Church?
By Damian Thompson: July 3rd, 2009

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation is very cross with me. Yesterday I reported that, according to an excellent source of mine, Cherie Blair confided recently that “our next mission” was to modernise the Catholic Church. “Utter rubbish”, snapped back Tony’s spokesman. Well, far be it from me to question the Blairs’ truthfulness, or to divulge my source, so I’ve replaced the post with this one.

And what I want to say is this. It would not surprise me in the least if the Blairs had a mission to modernise the Church’s teaching, supported by the foundation. When Tony Blair told Attitude magazine that the Church’s teaching on homosexuality was a generational thing, he was voicing the devout hope of the Tabletistas that things will loosen up in the next pontificate or two.

Blair’s understanding of the Catholic Church has been moulded by, among others, Hans Küng. And enabling that liberalising process is apparently one of the aims of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which even more implausibly believes that it can knock the hard edges off Islam.

What I don’t know is to what extent Blair was encouraged or discouraged in his fantasy by the man who received him into the Church, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor. But, clearly, his Attitude interview overstepped the mark and made it impossible for the Cardinal to take up a position as one of the foundation’s advisers.

As for the new Archbishop of Westminster, I think the Blairs would be ill advised to pop round to Ambrosden Avenue for a chat with +Vincent about making the Magisterium more Guardian-friendly. The dropping of Tony and Cherie has been one of Archbishop Nichols’s boldest moves - and most popular.

Still, there’s always the next conclave, which I trust is many years off. Pope Benedict XVI should outlive the Faith Foundation - but, if he doesn’t, I wouldn’t be surprised if its supporters tried to influence the choice of pontiff. Not that I rate their chances. After all, they didn’t have much luck with Westminster.