Rimini, Italy, Aug 31, 2009 / 20:23 pm
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who converted to the Catholic faith a few years ago, addressed participants at the Rimini Meeting in Italy, saying, “The voice of the Church should be heard” and “it should speak confidently, clearly and openly.”
During his speech the former Prime Minister underscored, “Faith and reason are in alliance, not opposition,” and that therefore “the Church can be the insistent spiritual voice that makes globalization our servant not our master.”
After praising the Church’s untiring social work, Blair went on to say, “There is not just room, but a growing space today for organizations of civic society to step forward and do things that neither market nor state can do.”
Blair said his conversion to the Catholic faith was due in part to his wife Cherie. “I began to go to Mass and we went together. We could have gone to the Anglican or Catholic church – guess who won?” he joked.
“As time went on, I had been going to Mass for a long time ... it'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,” Tony Blair said.
Despite these words, Blair and his wife maintain positions on contraception and gay unions that are contrary to the Church’s teachings.