Cherie Blair

Update: reports of Cherie being considered for this post have been (unofficially) denied by Downing St. It may be that the possibility has been shelved because of the public reaction, so 'thank you' to those who opposed it. Hat-tip to Hermeneutic of Continuity.

Current Status: please lobby the Vatican. Cherie Booth (Blair), Britain's most notorious Catholic dissident, married to the Prime Minister responsible for the most anti-life and anti-Catholic legislation of recent history, is reported as being under consideration for appointment to the Pontifical Academcy for Social Sciences. (The picture shows her waving a condom at a stall at a Labour Party conference.) The report, from the Papa Ratzinger Forum, is not authoritative, but it is better to be safe than sorry.

Joanna Bogle is encouraging protests by fax to the Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith. The fax number is 0039-06-69883409.

Hat tip to Hermeneutic of Continuity and Joanna Bogle.


From the Papa Ratzinger report: 'Vatican sources said she may soon be sworn in as a member of the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences.
The academy is an independent entity within the Holy See and was established 12 years ago by John Paul II. New members are elected by current members from men and women on the basis of "the high level of their academic work and their moral profile" and are subsequently named directly by the Pope.'

For Cherie Booth's public dissent, see, notably, a Telegraph article on her views on women in the Church, here, her support for an International Planned Parenthood campaign, from the Catholic Herald (1st Aug 2003), as follows:
Cherie Blair, the wife of the UK Prime Minister and a prominent Catholic, has angered campaigners by lending her support to an IPPF initiative, Lust for Life. Mrs Blair hosted a private reception at 10 Downing Street for the Lust for Life campaign which hopes to raise £100,000 for the organisation. Nuala Scarisbrick of LIFE said: "There is no life in the IPPF's campaign, only death. She should know that. IPPF is behind China's one-child policy."