Senior English Catholics yesterday welcomed the conversion of Tony Blair to Catholicism, as church attendance figures appeared to show that their church is now attracting more Sunday worshippers than the Church of England.Although some conservative Catholics have claimed that Labour's record in office on issues such as abortion, same sex civil partnerships, embryo research and the Iraq war have undermined the former prime minister's claim to have accepted church doctrine, the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, who conducted the service at which Mr Blair was accepted into the church on Friday evening, welcomed his conversion.
Murphy-O'Connor said on BBC Radio 2: "It was a very moving occasion ... this was a gift for Tony, a personal journey and a gift for his family. I think also, it is not just in his travels as prime minister but even before that there was something he said to me, that he feels at home in the Catholic church in a way he did not in any other church or in the Anglican communion."A Vatican spokesman said that the conversion of "such an authoritative personality" could only give rise to joy and respect. The last world leader Mr Blair met shortly before he left office in the summer was Pope Benedict XVI.
The Church of England yesterday disputed the suggestion that Sunday service attendance figures, to be published next year, show more Catholics attending mass than Anglicans attending the established church's services.
The statistics, gathered by the Christian Research organisation, showed both churches' attendances in long-term decline, but Catholicism apparently recording a blip which placed it marginally ahead of the Anglicans on 861,800 in 2006 - 32,000 down from the previous year - compared with a Church of England figure of 852,500, representing only an 18,000 decline.
Both figures are well down from a decade ago. The Catholic congregations have been bolstered by an influx of devoted young Poles and other eastern Europeans in the last two years - though they overwhelmingly attend their own services.
Christian Research has shown Catholic mass attendance outstripping Church of England worshippers consistently over the last 30 years, though about six times as many people in the population as a whole claim nominal allegiance to Anglicanism than Catholicism, even if they rarely attend church.
A Church of England spokesman said: "Even if you accept the gap is narrowing, to get a full picture you have to look at a lot more than Sunday services. For Anglicans it is not just about Sunday attendance. People have family and other commitments. Midweek we have 180,000 worshippers and that reflects today's society."
At Saint Andrew Bobola, perhaps the most famous Polish Catholic church in London, well over 300 people crowded in for the 10.30 mass yesterday morning. News of Mr Blair's conversion had reached some of them through the papers and others through Polish television.
Michael Sobic, a chef who left Warsaw for the UK in 1981, welcomed the highest-profile conversion from Anglicanism to Catholicism in many decades.
"It's fantastic about Tony Blair, brilliant," he said. "Polish people always go to church," said another worshipper. "I think it's good for [Blair]." Others were less stunned. "Obviously Blair was a committed Christian and his wife is a Catholic and he educated his children at a Catholic school, so it didn't come as a huge surprise," said Ewa Butryn, who had gone to church with her husband and children.
"I don't think it will have a big effect on politics, though. Religion and politics don't mix very well these days."
Since Poland joined the EU three years ago attendance at St Andrew Bobola has shot up. "The church is very much a welcoming place, said Mr Sobic. "It's always a full house. It's a really, really strong community and very committed." The Polish influx had been "a blessing" for the Catholic church in the UK, but he was saddened that not all churches were flourishing. "I feel sorry for you guys because so many Church of England churches are empty now. It's a pity. Here it's always full."
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