Blair to meet Pope and fuel rumours of Catholic conversion

2 June 2006

Tony Blair, his wife, Cherie, and their children will have an audience with Pope Benedict in the Vatican today, raising expectations that he will convert to the Roman Catholic faith when he stands down as Prime Minister.

Mr Blair is expected to use the audience to invite the Pope to make his first visit to Britain next year, and there is growing speculation that it could be made a state visit.

However, Mr Blair may have quit as Prime Minister before the Pope's visit. MPs now expect him to signal his departure date at the Labour conference in September following his decision - disclosed in The Independent - to step down at the same time as John Prescott, his deputy.

<snip>

Today's audience will be the first time that Mr Blair has met the present Pope, but he had an audience with the late Pope John Paul II in 2003, shortly before the Iraq War. It has been made clear privately that Pope Benedict XVI is attracted to the prospect of a state visit to Britain, but church leaders here have been told that the papal diary is full for next year.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article624201.ece


Oh I wish he would just give it up. Converting to RC will do nothing to save his wretched soul.

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and one million Hail Mary's.

And 15 Our Fathers, 15 Glory Bes and one I Believe, if memory serves. :hi:

The expanded edition?

In the Roman Catholic tradition, a full rosary consists of 15 decades -- a set of prayers consisting of one Our Father, ten Hail Marys and one Glory Be -- plus a few additional prayers. With each decade, the prayer is supposed to medidate on a "mystery," representing a significant moment of religious history. There are 15 mysteries, divided into three sets of five.

Since most pious Catholics are not monks or nuns with hours to spend praying, it has long been the practice to pray only a third of the rosary at a time by doing the introductory prayers and five decades for one of the sets of mysteries. Because this is the most common practice, rosary chaplets are most commonly found in this configuration (there are others, including chaplets with beads for all 15 decades.)

From what my Catholic neighbor can remember, it used to be that getting a full rosary as a penance meant doing the full rosary, ie all 15 decades. A lesser penance might be to do five decades and meditate on one of the sets of mysteries.

when paying respects at a Catholic wake, as the priest approaches, leave the room till it's over, or go home.

At least with most people I bring it up with. With the recent addition of the Luminous Mysteries, I think you can technically say it is 20 decades/rosary.

http://www.catholic.com/library/New_Mysteries_For_Rosary.asp

It used to be a grand total of 159 Hail Mary's, but when Pope John Paul II added the Luminous Mysteries to be prayed on Thursdays, the Rosary now has 53 extra HM's, for a total of 212 Hail Mary's.

I was raised Episcopalian, but I went through an "Anglo-Catholic" phase in my mid teens and learned the rosary and the like. I never heard of the Luminous mysteries, I'll look them up.

The Devil a monk would be.
When the Devil was well
The devil a monk was he!!


Old Children's Rhyme

The Pope will rant about gays and abortion, Tony is saved...an illegal war be damned. I don't trust this Pope one bit. If he had any courage, he would tell Blair that his war is immoral to his face.

Fuck you poodle boy. How can Britains put up with this shit? As far as I know, Britains don't usually fall for idiotic religious nonsense that too...

Oh well, he hopefully has less than a year left in office anyways at this point

Then I really don't see what the problem is. It's hardly like we are still stuck in the era of Titus Oates when it comes to these matters is it?

does that mean he'd have to resign as PM?

:evilgrin:

It's more tricky for the Queen but thankfully, Tony Blair is not the monarch. Indeed come to think of it, the usual argument against Britain becoming a republic is to raise the horrific thought of "President Tony". Make of that what you will.

The great 18th century PM Ben Disraeli, was Jewish, for example.

Mention Catholicism & they start frothing at the mouth.

:spray: :rofl:

and it has been rumored for quite some time that Blair has been worshipping as Catholic. I am sure that he would be welcomed by Opus Dei.

Or more accurately stated, Opus Diaboli (work of the Devil).

Pope Benedict XVI famously loves cats. Real Catholics love kitties, Cherie!

So that was a crusade after all.

a 30-foot, translucent hand descends and starts groping and pounding around as the Poodle King runs this way and that

Bright Side..he can start feeling guilty.