Tony Blair and Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict is planning a two day summit of Catholic politicians across the globe at the Vatican to discuss the role of faith witness in their professions, reports say.
Former British premier and Catholic convert Tony Blair, German chancellor Angela Merkel, US vice president Joe Biden, former Spanish premier Jose Maria Aznar, and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi are among invitees, the Daily Mail reports.
Church officials have been quietly working on the conference, which will be called "Witnesses of Christ in the Political Community", for several months.
Items to be discussed include the family, right to life, Christian roots, education and bioethics, according to the report.
It quoted Vatican sources to say that Pope Benedict was becoming "increasingly concerned" at how Christian values were being eroded because of various world governments introducing legislation against Catholic teaching.
Vatican sources said the timing of the meeting would be pushed forward to early next year given the decision earlier this week by the European Court of Human Rights that Italy should remove crucifixes from classrooms.
A senior Vatican official said: "There is growing alarm within the Vatican and especially the Holy Father that not enough prominence is being given to basic Christian and family values by governments.
"This has been further increased by this week’s ruling by the European Court of Human rights and the display of crucifixes in Italian classrooms - it is outrageous that such an institution could interfere in the cultural heritage of Italy in such a way."
The landmark decision caused outrage amongst Italian politicians and was also criticised by Vatican officials who described it as "wrong, short sighted and regretful."
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Pope invites Tony Blair to Vatican summit to discuss Church’s fears that politics is losing its religion (Daily Mail)
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