Pope-fever has hit the UK and all over the country, Christians are looking to take something from the occasion, be it inspiration or the blessing of a young child. The first state visit Pope Benedict XVI has ever made is causing quite a stir.
It is typical of Blair because, while hardly mentioning himself in it, he manages to imply that he, like Newman, is a man of intellectual courage and integrity, but with the sort of - hey, you know - open-mindedness and flexibility that is needed to get on in the modern world. Making the point that the intellectual rigour and the deep scholarship that led Newman to leave the Anglican church for Rome belonged to "another time", Blair says that people are, of course, "still moved by intellectual assent to Catholic Faith": "People still make this journey in a less spectacular way. I should know [my italics]."
He thus seems to identify himself with Newman's determination to "do what he thought right, however uncomfortable or unpopular it would be" (thinking, perhaps, of himself and the Iraq war), and goes on to attribute the same kind of intellectual courage to Pope Benedict XVI. But then he points out that such uncompromising positions are difficult to hold "in the contemporary world where opinion is overwhelmingly shaped by the mass media" and suggests ways in which conservative teaching might be softened up a bit.
According to Professor Dunbar, "When people are in a romantic relationship, instead of having the typical five inner-circle friends, on average they have only four. Bearing in mind that one of those is the new person who has come into your life; it means you've had to give up two others." Well, frankly I don't believe it. Anyone who has ever been in love knows that the demands of the relationship make it most unlikely that one would be able to see four other people at such frequent intervals. The object of one's affections wouldn't tolerate it, and one probably wouldn't want to, anyway.
Not content with implying that Newman would not be opposed to a bit of compromise on sexual issues, Blair even suggests that the putative saint would be a supporter of his Faith Foundation and its support for development projects because it was Newman who had first "put the concept of development on the map" and without whom "we probably would not be using the terms 'Millennium Development Goals' or 'international development' today".
It is typical of Blair because, while hardly mentioning himself in it, he manages to imply that he, like Newman, is a man of intellectual courage and integrity, but with the sort of - hey, you know - open-mindedness and flexibility that is needed to get on in the modern world. Making the point that the intellectual rigour and the deep scholarship that led Newman to leave the Anglican church for Rome belonged to "another time", Blair says that people are, of course, "still moved by intellectual assent to Catholic Faith": "People still make this journey in a less spectacular way. I should know [my italics]."
He thus seems to identify himself with Newman's determination to "do what he thought right, however uncomfortable or unpopular it would be" (thinking, perhaps, of himself and the Iraq war), and goes on to attribute the same kind of intellectual courage to Pope Benedict XVI. But then he points out that such uncompromising positions are difficult to hold "in the contemporary world where opinion is overwhelmingly shaped by the mass media" and suggests ways in which conservative teaching might be softened up a bit.
According to Professor Dunbar, "When people are in a romantic relationship, instead of having the typical five inner-circle friends, on average they have only four. Bearing in mind that one of those is the new person who has come into your life; it means you've had to give up two others." Well, frankly I don't believe it. Anyone who has ever been in love knows that the demands of the relationship make it most unlikely that one would be able to see four other people at such frequent intervals. The object of one's affections wouldn't tolerate it, and one probably wouldn't want to, anyway.
Not content with implying that Newman would not be opposed to a bit of compromise on sexual issues, Blair even suggests that the putative saint would be a supporter of his Faith Foundation and its support for development projects because it was Newman who had first "put the concept of development on the map" and without whom "we probably would not be using the terms 'Millennium Development Goals' or 'international development' today".
About the Author:
The sale of unique gifts and novelty gifts is said to be worth tens of millions of pounds during the Pope's first ever state visit to the UK.
No comments:
Post a Comment