A warm welcome to Tony Blair, whatever the wildly untypical clique of pseudo-aristocratic pseudo-Tories (because neocons are not really Tories at all) might say from the platform given to them by their public school and Oxbridge mates in the BBC. How orthodox were they when they cheered on the Iraq War? How orthodox are they now, when they continue to defend it?
Having made the Profession of Faith, Blair has a compendium of everything to which he has now publicly assented. It is the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the promulgation of which was as clear an expression as there has ever been of the charism of infallibility given by God to the Episcopal College throughout the world in union with, and by definition including, the Roman Pontiff. Every word of the Catechism is absolutely binding for all time, to no one’s realistic surprise.
It is to every one of those words that one assents by making the Profession of Faith, as Blair has now done. So, by making that Profession, he has in fact recanted his former support for abortion, doctor-assisted suicide, stem cell “research” (on which scientists have now pretty much given up anyway), forcing Catholic adoption agencies out of existence, the Iraq War, and economic policies of exactly the kind that Catholic Social Teaching has been developed in order to prevent and counteract. Hasn’t he?
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I don't remember the New Catechism saying Catholics had to support Saddam Hussein (against the evil Zionist Occupied Governments!) - but then I don't really trust the beastly thing further than I can throw it.
ReplyDeleteNo, my take on TB's "conversion" is simply that this is purely to help to oil the gears in his drive to become EU President in a couple of years' time. I'm only sorry that it's so utterly transparently obvious.
Oh, he had that sewn up anyway. Who else would want it?
ReplyDeleteAs for the Catechism, it is very clear about what is or is not a just war, and those whose job is to pronounce on these matters in particular circumstances were unanimous that the Iraq War was unjust.
It was not to protect Israel - that would have have necessitated the existence of Iraqi WMDs (or at least a sincere belief in that existence), and Israel has her own nuclear weapons anyway.
Iraqis in general were better off under Saddam, which tells one just how bad things now are. Iraqi Christians were especially so.
What do you make of Kamm on this - http://oliverkamm.typepad.com/blog/2007/12/religious-tests.html?
ReplyDeleteWe'll start the fun and games at the extended quotation in French without translation, and move on to "a defined dogmata".
If he assumes that all his readers can read French, then why can't he himself write English?
Thanks, David. I accept that my postings might have the scent of "Fr Jack Hackett", but as an Australian convert to the faith and a BA LLB (Hons), I think I might have something to say even if I lack tact...
ReplyDeleteMy point about the older use of the reception of converts is still valid, is it not?
I'll lay off the dirty words in future, ya' fe....
The problem with TB's reception into the Church is that for more than 10 years it has been said that he is a Catholic in all but name - and certainly he was receiving Holy Communion at Catholic Mass 10 years ago. Not only are we faced with someone being received into the Church who believed being a Catholic was so important that he declined to do so for a decade 'for political reasons' (wow, such a desire to be a Catholic!), but that during that time he consistently supported anti-life, anti-family policies that are inimical to Catholic values.
ReplyDeleteTB's conversion is not merely a private matter. If he is truly a Catholic now he should publicly repudiate his previous actions. Moreover, he should atone for those actions but doing everything possible to undo the harm. Will he do this? I doubt it. And that is why his reception into the Church (I hardly dare call it a 'conversion' because there is no indication of one) is so deeply troubling.
"the older use of the reception of converts is still valid, is it not?"
ReplyDeleteWell, since only the Lefebvrists use it...
"he should publicly repudiate his previous actions"
And has done so, precisely by making the Profession of Faith.
George Galloway in his Daily Record column said that when Tony does his first confession it will be so long that the priest should pack a large flask, a pack of sandwiches and a commode.
ReplyDeleteAs Galloway knows perfectly well, you have to make your First Confession BEFORE becoming a Catholic. And Blair has done it. He has recanted, among much else, the unjust war in Iraq. Hasn't he?
ReplyDelete