A lot of us have been excited about this for a while. My own estrangement from the Vatican hierarchy doesn’t prevent my ingrained thrill at the thought of a former British prime minister defecting to Rome. He’s visiting the Vatican this weekend, and the Guardian has a report on the PM’s spiritual journey:
In another clear sign that the Roman Catholic church in Rome is preparing to welcome the outgoing prime minister into the fold, it is planned that he should go directly from his audience with Pope Benedict XVI to a lunch hosted by the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, at the Venerable English College in Rome. He will be the first serving prime minister to set foot in the college, which centuries ago trained Roman Catholic priests for a clandestine return to protestant England and, often, an agonising martyr’s death at the hands of their Anglican persecutors.
The Dish 