Monday
Jun252007
Monday, June 25, 2007 at 11:24AM "Miracles are hard to come by in Britain"
During outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair's visit to the Vatican Pope Benedict gave him some things to think about, including the lack of miracles in the U.K. ...
Reader Comments (2)
No, that's not what the pope said. This blogger has the correct quotation, along with some video to back it up:
The UK Daily Mail claimed that Pope Benedict said "Yes, yes, although it is taking some time - miracles are hard to come by in Britain" when Blair brought up the topic of Cardinal Newman's ongoing cause for canonization.
Here, via the BBC, is video of the Pope at least saying the words "It's very dificult to make miracles in Britain" to Blair at 0:42 in the video. Go ahead and listen for yourself.
Admittedly, the pope is off-camera and the statement is probably included as a background sound bite. Nevertheless, the line is still clearly audible. The BBC journalist does not make any comment on the Pope's words. Could that mean the Pope's remark made it past the BBC editors? Or, again, did they or the reporter not think it very noteworthy?
In any case, it appears that the Pope fell prey to the near-omnipresence of video/audio recordings at these sorts of meetings, and therefore a comment that no doubt originated within a wider discussion will now, sadly, be analyzed and evaluated separated from its original context.
(http://www.americanpapist.com/2007/06/amp-exclusive-video-confirmation-of.html)
Poor Tony Blair. The press has had it in for him since 2003. The leftists within his own party will never forgive him for steering the Labour Party away from socialism and changing Clause IV of their platform. British conservatives don't like him for his fiscal intitiatives. American liberals dislike him for his alliance with Bush, and American conservatives distrust him because he's not American. He can't do anything right. He can't even become Catholic right.
He is the poorest of the poor, and that's why I stand with him.
Tony Blair has a lot to answer for and that the Pope reminded him of that fact.