THE TELEGRAPH: Tony Blair was right to reform the laws on homosexuality but his hypocrisy is unbearable, says Andrew Pierce.
Mahatma Gandhi once said: "Hypocrisy and distortion are passing currents under the name of religion." Tony Blair, take note. First he declared that the Pope was wrong on homosexuality, then he had the temerity to suggest that the Roman Catholic church reorganise in the same way as the Labour Party did. So, cardinals, there you have it. Forget your Papal encyclicals: all you need is a red rose, some pledge cards, and a few soundbites to restore your church to its rightful place at the centre of the moral order.
What is Blair on? He must have been too busy counting the cash from his speaking engagements to notice that at the next election New Labour will be buried after 16 years and two leaders. I suspect that Pope Benedict XVI, the 265th Bishop of Rome, prefers the more solid foundations of the Vatican.
The Pope has described homosexuality as a "tendency ordered towards an intrinsic moral evil", which Blair takes issue with. But he has also said that "legislative action in favour of abortion is incompatible with participation in the Eucharist". On that topic Blair was silent, not least because, as PM, he failed to back a lower legal limit for abortion of 24 weeks, and presided over an NHS that terminated 200,000 pregnancies a year. >>> By Andrew Pierce | Thursday, April 9, 2009
