Did Blair do it? Part I
Timing, to repeat a truism for the millionth time, is everything and that goes just as well for humour as for politics as for publishing. How providential, then, for Bloomsbury(of Harry Potter fame an fortune) to publish Universal Father: A Life of Pope John Paul II, by the British Vatican watcher Garry O'Connor, on 18 April, the very day that the papal conclave begins.
The timing is doubly providential in that the book will appear in the run up to the British general election on 5 May, a period when all things Blair will be grist to the media mill, and of great interest will be the "authoritative" account by O'Connor of the mass Pope John Paul celebrated for the Blair family at the Vatican on 25 February 2003. For this scoop, O'Connor was granted a 90-minute interview with Cherie Blair, who describes the mass as the high point of her entire time as Prime Minister's wife.
The Blairs arrived in the Pope's private chapel at 8 am, to find him facing the altar, deep in prayer. "The image he gave," writes O'Connor, "was for Cherie a symbol of both suffering and the defeat of suffering. When he began to say Mass, he sprang to life: he said all of it, the first part in English but, when he came to the Eucharistic prayer, in Latin. Blair, in an off-the-peg suit and muted tie, read the first reading from Isaiah: 'I it is who must blot out everything.' Euan, his eldest son, read the responsorial prayer: 'Heal my soul, for I have sinned against you,' and Kathryn, their daughter, the second reading, from Corinthians: 'Jesus was never yes or no: with him it was always yes.' "
O'Connor then writes that "the Pope gave the family communion." What he doesn't say is whether the Prime Minister received communion. Most people think that he didn't, since he had been told by the late Cardinal Hume that this was inappropriate for a non-Catholic. On 21 March, 2003, however, the Catholic Herald wrote that the Pope had personally given Tony Blair Holy Communion — the first time in history that a British prime minister had received the sacrament from the hands of the pontiff. The story generated such hefty denials from the Vatican and No. 10 Downing Street, that the paper was forced to withdraw the claim in its next issue.
In a number of recent interviews, however, O'Connor has suggested that the communion story is true and that he verified it from several sources, including the papal chamberlain's office. Out of respect for the family, however, he decided to gloss over the incident in his book. True or not, it is well known that the Blairs admired the Pope greatly and it is this admiration that may hold the key to understanding another big story last week: The decision by the Charles, Prince of Wales to postpone his registry office wedding and church blessing until yesterday. After all, shortly after the Pope's death, Clarence House announced that the Windsor Guildhall Ceremony and marriage blessing would take place regardless of any clash with a burial on Friday. But on Monday, the Prince's press officer was telling a different story. Did someone lean on his boss? Part II later...
