Former prime minister to be received into Catholic Church (Roundup)

By Rich Bowden, M&C Staff Writer Nov 9, 2007, 13:50 GMT

Pope Benedict XVI (right) poses alongside Britain\'s outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair during an audience in the private library of the Vatican 23 June 2007. EPA/OSSERVATORE ROMANO

(M&C) - Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair will be received into the Catholic Church within weeks according to the Catholic magazine The Tablet.

Mr Blair, currently a member of the Anglican faith, will become a Roman Catholic at a mass at the private chapel of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster according to the report.

With his wife Cherie and four children being of the Catholic faith, rumours have been circulating for many years that Mr Blair would convert to Catholicism once he left the prime ministership.

One of his last acts as Prime Minister was to meet Pope Benedict who he advised of his determination to leave the Anglican faith said the newspaper.

Mr Blair has described the report as "...the same old speculation" however sources close the former prime minister now Middle East peace envoy say there is some substance to the rumours.

Mr Blair's alleged conversion will divide Catholics as he led a government which introduced much legislation opposed by the church including introducing civil partnerships, authorising stem cell research, extending equality regulations to adoptions by gay couples, failing to restrict abortions and going to war in Iraq.