In an interview with L'Osservatore Romano, former UK Prime Minister and Catholic convert, Tony Blair, has said "the voice of faith must not be absent from the public debate."
"My spiritual journey began when I started to go to Mass with my wife," Blair told L'Osservatore Romano, Zenit reports.
"Then we decided to baptise our children in the Catholic faith. It was a journey that lasted 25 years, or perhaps more. In time, emotionally, intellectually and rationally it seemed to me that the Catholic home was the right one for me. When I left political office, and I no longer had all the context connected with being prime minister, it was something I really wanted to do."
Blair said that in addition to his wife's influence, an experience with Pope John Paul II helped him move toward Catholicism. He attended a Mass celebrated by the Holy Father in his private chapel.
"It is still a very vivid memory, an episode that impressed me very much," Blair recounted. "Certainly, it is quite probable that, in any event, I would have come to (my) conversion but, undoubtedly, it was an important stage that ultimately reinforced my decision.
He said the importance of religion "does not mean that debates and confrontations will end" but would probably continue to pit "the Church will be on one side and political leaders on the other."
"However, I don't think this is the main point: The point is that faith has every right to enter in (the public space) to speak. It must not be silent.
"The voice of faith must not be absent from the public debate."
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Blair Reveals What Attracted Him to Catholicism (Zenit)
Granny told me not to marry a Catholic, Tony Blair tells paper (The Guardian)