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."
SOURCE
Pope invites Tony Blair to Vatican summit to discuss Church’s fears that politics is losing its religion (Daily Mail)
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Newman Cause