According to the New York Times, aides say that Blair, who stepped down as prime minister six months ago, delayed his formal conversion until after leaving office to avoid politicizing his religious beliefs. His conversion in office would also have generated controversy because the prime minister’s duties include a role in the appointment of Anglican bishops.
Tony Blair’s wife, Cherie, and their four children are Catholics. Blair had made a practice of attending Mass with them, saying he did so to keep his family together on Sundays.
In 1996, the year before Blair became prime minister, Cardinal Basil Hume wrote to him asking him to stop receiving Holy Communion at a Catholic church near his home. Blair obeyed, but according to aides he wrote back to the cardinal, saying, “I wonder what Jesus would have made of it.”
Some Catholics in Britain have raised questions about Blair’s conversion, citing among other concerns the Blair government’s stands in favor of lax anti-abortion laws, embryonic stem cell research, adoptions by homosexuals, and same-sex civil unions.
John Smeaton, director of Britain’s Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said in an interview published earlier this month in the journal The Spectator that Blair needed to clearly articulate a change of mind. “We need to hear a full repudiation from him.
Without one, having Blair as a Catholic is like having a vegetarian in a meat-eating club. It simply does not make sense,” Smeaton said.
Some indications of a change of heart have leaked through the virtual privacy fence Tony Blair has set up around his faith. Fr. Tim Russ, the pastor of the parish Blair frequented when he was prime minister, revealed to The Guardian that Blair confided his doubts about his administration’s stance on embryonic research several years ago. As the debate on embryo experimentation was going on in Parliament, Blair told Fr. Russ, "We are acting beyond our competence." The pastor took this to mean that Blair thought “matters of life were not within men's competence to decide.”