Former British Prime Minister and recently converted Catholic Tony Blair provides a little bit of education to the Pope in the latest issue of Attitude magazine, which I am sure the Pope is a loyal subscriber.

Organized religions face the same dilemma as political parties when faced with changed circumstances. You can either A: Hold on to your core vote, basically, you know, say ‘Look let’s not break out because if we break out we might lose what we’ve got, and at least we’ve got what we’ve got so let’s keep it’. Or B: You say ‘let’s accept that the world is changing, and let us work out how we can lead that change and actually reach out’.
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“There is a huge generational difference here,” he said. “There’s probably that same fear amongst religious leaders that if you concede ground on [homosexuality], because attitudes and thinking evolve over time, where does that end? You’d start having to rethink many, many things.” He added: “If you went and asked the [ordinary Catholic] congregation, I think you’d find that their faith is not to be found in those types of entrenched attitudes.”

I suspect that if Blair had not played opposite George Bush during the Iraq war, we’d all have a far different opinion of him now.