Silly Billy

Ousted Labour former prime minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair's plans to set up the Blair Foundation, a charitable organisation devoted to promoting inter-faith dialogue, received a set back with the confirmation of the document Dominus Jesus. Benedict XVI must have been even less accommodating than was reported when Blair was given an audience by the pope in Rome, shortly after signing the European Union Constitution accords in Berlin.

Benedict is immovable on the line taken when he was cardinal Ratzinger - there is one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, all the rest except for the 'wounded' Orthodox churches - are not even considered to be Churches.

Blair has a harder row to hoe than he ever imagined in his woolly fantasies of intervening (again) in what he doesn't understand - inter-faith relations and dialogue are not for him; he had to be told sharply too, by the United States, that he has no role in mediating between Israel and anybody at all, he may try only to help set up administrative structures for Palestinians.

Blair is an embarrassment; which is an improvement on when he was in office - then he was a menace as well.