Blair stayed out of the fray. But he is convinced that religious faith is an advantage for a political leader. I am still a Catholic priest in good standing. I can say Mass and preach and, being an emeritus now means it doesn't matter whether I have this canonical approval,' he said. He counts Henry Kissinger, Germany's former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, former US President Jimmy Carter and Lord Callaghan among his friends and admirers.
Human dignity consists of both, to have rights and responsibilities.
If somebody just does not want to work because he is lazy, then it is not a fundamental human right to be lazy and to be protected in his laziness,' he said. When he told me that it is intolerable that in the 21st century we still have fights and battles between Catholics and Protestants in one part of Europe, I think he is passionately committed to this. Blair and the Labour Party's relationship with religion has always been a difficult one. The right-wing press called for Blair's head, accusing him of trying to play the God card to his own advantage. Simon Heffer, in the Daily Mail, called Blair 'naive' and asserted that his 'grasp of theology is at an elementary level of philosophy'.