Is this a lack of integrity or is it wisdom and maturity that he waited this long?

Here is an article, reprinted in their entirety, for your perusal.

A NORTH-EAST priest who is a close friend of Tony Blair last night welcomed the former prime minister's conversion to Catholicism.

Mr Blair was welcomed into the Roman Catholic church on Friday night by the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor - leader of the Roman Catholics in England and Wales - bringing to an end years of speculation that he would convert on leaving office.

Father John Caden first said Mass for Tony and Cherie Blair when Mr Blair came to Sedgefield, County Durham, as MP in 1983.

Since then he has baptised all four of the Blairs' children at St John Fisher Church, in Sedgefield.

Father Caden said last night: "After 24 years, we can finally welcome the decision. I am absolutely delighted.

"When Tony first came to Sedgefield as a young MP, he told me his wife was a devout Catholic and that he would like to bring her to church.

"From then, he didn't just come the odd time, he came every week, up until he became Prime Minister."

Father Caden said: "He was an Anglican who married a Catholic woman and vowed to bring up their children as Catholics, which he has done, but now it is wonderful that he has stepped all the way over."

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor welcomed the decision, which culminated in a ceremony in the chapel of Archbishop's House, in Westminster.

He said: "My prayers are with him, his wife and family at this joyful moment in their journey of faith together."

Converting while in office could have caused the former premier problems with issues such as abortion, contraception, homosexuality and faith schools.

Mr Blair's former spokesman Alastair Campbell once famously told reporters: "We don't do God".

Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams wished the former prime minister well. He said: "A great Catholic writer of the last century said that the only reason for moving from one Christian family to another was to deepen one's relationship with God.

"I pray that this will be the result of Tony Blair's decision in his personal life."

However, The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (Spuc) reacted with surprise to the news, citing in particular Mr Blair's views on abortion.

Tory MP Ann Widdecombe, who converted to Catholicism in 1993, said it was possible in her opinion to be a practising Catholic and Prime Minister.

She told Sky News: "I think the crucial thing to remember is at the point you are received (into the Catholic church) you have to say individually and out loud I believe everything the church teaches to be revealed truth.

"And that means, if you previously had any problems with church teaching, as Tony Blair obviously did over abortion, as he did again over Sunday trading, you would have to say you changed your mind."

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I know I haven't posted here in a while, but this article got my attention. What determination this author has......What agility.......to turn Mother Teresa into a sincere, but misguided missionary.

Since it began in 1952, nearly 85,000 people have found shelter and comfort here. And 35,000 of them left this place dead.

For someone so practical it is surprising that she never questioned the Catholic dogma.

The problem, some say, was how Mother Teresa viewed the inmates. For her, everyone at Nirmal Hriday was the sick, dying or abandoned Christ. Every sore that is cleaned and every hand that is held is in fact, his.

Her critics say she saw suffering as necessary to the salvation of the soul. The goal was not to put an end to the suffering but to help the suffer find joy in it.

"If people are sick on the streets, what they need is a hospital, they don't need a group of nuns praying for them or keeping them on a bad diet," says journalist and co-producer, Hell's Angel, Tariq Ali.

Mother Teresa's critics have often questioned the source of her funding. Among them - the right-wing dictator of Haiti, Jean-Claude Duvalier, Charles Keating, who stole $252 million in the 80s Saving and Loan scandal, and British publisher Robert Maxwell, who embezzled ?450 million from his employees' pension funds.

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China’s rulers will have to be dreadfully thick not to give a favorable response to the extraordinary letter of Pope Benedict XVI pleading for the unification of China’s underground Catholic churches - some of which recognize the authority of the Vatican - and the government-approved official churches, which do not. The pope is effectively conceding the main point of the half-century-old split.

The pope still insists on the right of the Vatican to appoint bishops. China’s government, however, does not permit it and has persecuted underground churches loyal to Rome while supporting churches that accept the government’s direction.

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Outraged Catholic lawmakers in Australia yesterday rebelled against threats of retribution by the church if they vote in favour of cloning human embryos for stem cell research.

...

“Maybe I’ll go to hell, but if I go to hell I’m going to do so by saving a lot of lives, because that’s what this bill is about,� Labour Party MP Tony Stewart said in a radio interview. “We don’t need a religious leader telling members of parliament what should be done.�

Lawmakers have been allowed a conscience vote free of party pressure on a bill to legalise therapeutic cloning in the state after the federal government overturned a ban on the controversial scientific procedure last year.

The new law would allow excess human embryos from in-vitro fertilisation treatment to be used to create stem cells for research into fighting debilitating diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and cystic fibrosis. “Cloning is not quite the same as abortion and the legislation for such a thing as cloning is different from actually performing cloning,� Pell said.

“But it is a serious moral matter and Catholic politicians who vote for this legislation must realise that their voting has consequences for their place in the life of the church.�

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We need to Pray for this guy.

An elderly bishop in China's underground Catholic church has been detained again by police, nine months after his release from their custody, a U.S.-based monitoring group said Thursday.

...

Jia, who was ordained in 1980, has been arrested at least 10 times since January 2004, according to the Kung Foundation. It said he looks after 100 handicapped orphans.

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In a sermon last week marking the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Abortion Act, he warned Catholic politicians of "the barrier such co-operation (on abortion) erects to receiving holy communion".

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Hundreds of thousands of Italians massed in Rome for a Family Day rally on May 12, demonstrating popular opposition to a government proposal that would offer legal recognition to same-sex civil unions.

Although organizers stressed that the day's rally was intended as an expression of support for the family, rather than a demonstration about any particular piece of legislation, the enormous crowd was seen-- by politicians, the media, and the participants themselves-- as a clear statement against the civil-union plan.

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Beyond mere policy, Catholic social doctrine seeks to clarify the proper order and harmony among societies, says a Catholic author and professor.

Russell Hittinger, the William K. Warren Professor of Catholic Studies and a research professor of law at the University of Tulsa, spoke Wednesday at the "Foundations of a Free Society" conference organized by the Acton Institute, held at the Pontifical Lateran University.

In this interview with ZENIT, Hittinger discusses the history of Catholic social doctrine, starting with Pope Leo XIII, up to Benedict XVI's most recent contribution to the body of knowledge in "Deus Caritas Est."

Hittinger's most recent book is "The First Grace: Rediscovering the Natural Law in a Post-Christian World."

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The effort to “bleach out God� from U.S. public life threatens to disconnect American society from its history and work against efforts to build the common good, said the Catholic archbishop of the nation’s capital.

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More information about "Divine Mercy" and Saint Faustina are at this earlier blog entry.

The instructions for saying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy are at this link.

The intentions of the Divine Mercy Novena are at this link

Intention for Today, April 14th:

Ninth Day

"Today bring to Me the Souls who have become Lukewarm, and immerse them in the abyss of My mercy. These souls wound My Heart most painfully. My soul suffered the most dreadful loathing in the Garden of Olives because of lukewarm souls. They were the reason I cried out: 'Father, take this cup away from Me, if it be Your will.' For them, the last hope of salvation is to run to My mercy."

Most compassionate Jesus, You are Compassion Itself. I bring lukewarm souls into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart. In this fire of Your pure love, let these tepid souls who, like corpses, filled You with such deep loathing, be once again set aflame. O Most Compassionate Jesus, exercise the omnipotence of Your mercy and draw them into the very ardor of Your love, and bestow upon them the gift of holy love, for nothing is beyond Your power.

Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon lukewarm souls who are nonetheless enfolded in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. Father of Mercy, I beg You by the bitter Passion of Your Son and by His three-hour agony on the Cross: Let them, too, glorify the abyss of Your mercy. Amen.