.- Prime Minister Tony Blair remembers meeting Pope John Paul II with his family two years ago. The Pope “radiated such warmth and kindness that the meeting was unforgettable,” he said. Upon hearing the news of the Pope’s death, the British prime minister issued a statement, which read: “The world has lost a religious leader who was revered across people of all faiths and none.
“He was an inspiration, a man of extraordinary faith, dignity and courage,” Blair’s statement continued. “Throughout a hard and often difficult life, he stood for social justice and on the side of the oppressed. … He never wavered, never flinched in the struggle for what he thought was good and right.
“Yet whatever his own hardship and experience of what was wrong in human nature, he never lost faith in the human spirit and its ultimate capacity to do good,” he stated. “He will be remembered with profound respect and admiration.”
