Among yesterday’s tributes to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, one stood out. It came not from a churchman, but from one of Britain’s most divisive politicians. Tony Blair described the late cardinal as a ‘wonderful advertisement’ for Christianity.
Now, you might expect a well-known Catholic to say something like that. Some reports did, after all, present Murphy-O’Connor as the man who ‘converted’ the New Labour leader. But while it’s true that the cardinal received Blair into the Catholic Church months after the latter resigned as prime minister, their relationship was complicated. Together they helped to decide the place of Catholics in Britain today – and not in an entirely happy way.
At the beginning of 2007 the cardinal wrote to Blair asking for an exemption from new gay adoption laws. The Cabinet said no, forcing the Church to shut or cut ties with its adoption agencies.
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