Blair leapfrogs new boss

Alexander Chancellor, in today’s Guardian tells an amusing tale about Tony Blair being reprimanded by Cardinal Hume for taking part in mass at his wife’s church. Hume pointed out that Blair, as an Anglican, had no right to his sanctimonious nibble of the Lord’s transubstantiated body. Blair apparently reacted thus: ‘I wonder what Jesus would have said.’

Of course, he didn’t wonder at all. He knew. But Chancellor continues by remarking that Blair, assuming he soon becomes a catholic as predicted, will have to accept that the direct line with the Saviour he’s enjoyed up to now will have to be mediated by his new main man, Eggs Benedict.

If only this were true. The fact is that the catholic church is tough with the weak, but historically supine with the strong. Mother Teresa, the poison dwarf of Calcutta, may have disapproved of analgesics for the poveri cristi in her detention centres care centres, but she made an exception for Diana Spencer, Pinochet, etc. Why on earth should Ratzinger adopt a different policy in his dealings with Blair?