A Question Of Faith

THE BJP leaders have often invoked England's example as a state that's constitutionally religious but functionally secular. On his last visit to Britain, L.K. Advani pointed to England as a Christian state where everyone is free to practice their religion. As in England, so it will be with a BJP government in India, he said. But that English model was stirred, if not shaken, by reports that Prime Minister Tony Blair had been seen attending Mass at a Catholic church—alone. The controversy that followed was not all in the customary teacup.

바카라 웹사이트The bullish break Henry VIII made with the Roman Catholic church four centuries ago is not as remote as it might seem. Northern Ireland has made a contemporary war out of the differences between Protestant and Catholic Christianity. More than 3,000 people have been killed here since 1970 in violence rooted in the Protestant-Catholic divide. So when Blair was sighted alone in a Catholic church, some heard alarm in the church bells. Alone was the question. Blair's wife Cherie is Catholic, so are his three children.

바카라 웹사이트Blair has often accompanied them to the Catholic church in Victoria. But that he visited the Church without them one afternoon set off questions about his own religious leanings. England has never had a Catholic prime minister, though there is no formal constitutional bar to it. Any conversion to the Catholic faith by Blair would not precipitate a constitutional crisis, but it would cause what a historian called "constitutional awkwardness". Why Blair went there was described as a personal matter, but seems to have become a national question.

바카라 웹사이트Downing Street swiftly denied any suggestion that Blair was converting to Roman Catholicism. "There should be certain parts of every public figure's life that should be allowed to remain private," a Downing Street spokesman said. "Where the prime minister goes to Church is a matter for him and his family. Nobody else. End of story." It was not. A categorical statement followed: "He is not converting to Catholicism." It's inconceivable that Blair convert to Catholicism and England not take any notice because it's a private matter. The Queen heads the Church of England and the government functions in the name of the Queen.

바카라 웹사이트The government and its leader by logic and tradition lean along this Anglican tradition. Some divergence from this, maybe. A break, no. Compromises were offered; some church leaders defended Blair's faith as "Anglo-Catholicism". But that hyphen did not go down well with everyone. Was this new religion called Protholicism, an angry letter to a newspaper asked. Or was it Catestantism? The prime minister's religion is a specific church matter because it is he who appoints bishops in the Church of England. A progressive group within the Church said a prime minister's role in appointing bishops "comes with his or her position as prime minister, not with the religious affiliation of the prime minister". But the distinction is not as simple as it seems. Britain's relation with Europe is the one issue that's dominated public debate over the past many years. And it's only getting edgier as most European Union countries move towards a single currency while Britain sits out.

Millions of Tory as well as Labour supporters bitterly oppose a closer British integration into Europe. The separation of Britain from the rest of Europe is symbolised significantly, if not actually expressed in the separation of the churches. A belief in Catholic Christianity means acknowledgement of the Pope as the leader in religious matters that are not easily separable from personal issues or political beliefs. The Pope and his Catholic faithful strongly oppose abortion, for instance. The English media recently ran a screaming campaign in support of a young girl in Catholic Ireland who wanted an abortion. A Catholic prime minister of Britain would be one who either failed to enforce his beliefs, or acted publicly against them.

The prompt denial of any conversion is acknowledgement of the chaos such a move would cause in Northern Ireland. The Protestants there want to retain their union with Britain. Protestantism there is pursued with the zeal of the Crusades. Britain is saved from contemplating what might follow from a Catholic prime minister of Britain. The liberal view within England that religious faith is a matter for the prime minister to decide and "none of anybody else's business" has more logic than force. Blair may go to a Catholic church, but as prime minister he has redeclared his Anglican commitment. He had to.