A Present Event In A Sign Of Communion?

David Blackburn writes:

Tony Blair interrupted his Mediterranean holiday, on which he spent time on billionaire Larry Ellison’s gin palace, to condemn materialism and the pursuit of personal wealth. The former PM addressed the Catholic Church’s ‘Communion and Liberation Conference’ in Rimini – a great honour for a layman.

Urging the universal adoption of the ascetic, the Quartet’s special envoy to the Middle East, who is also an advisor to JP Morgan and an internationally renowned lecturer and author - and therefore needs houses across the globe - said that the “aggressive secularism and materialism found in parts of the West” should not be allowed to “gain traction” in the rest of the world. According to the Guardian, Blair's words had such power the audience was rendered speechless, as am I.

Speaking with trademark earnestness, a self-aware Mr Blair confided that his conversion to Catholicism had been “humbling”. And, echoing St Francis of Assisi, Mr Blair asserted that it was the “role of faith” to arrest the moral decline engendered by the love of money, and said he “would represent God’s truth” always. God help us.

But CL is still a very, very, very good thing. Just ask the Pope.