By IRNA
London : Pax Christi, the Catholic-led international Christian peacemaking movement, was holding a silent vigil Thursday against the first lecture given by former prime minister Tony Blair on Faith and Globalization since stepping down from power last year.
The peace group said it was holding a silent vigil in the Piazza of Westminster Cathedral, central London, where the former premier was addressing a selected audience, to call to “public attention of Blair’s involvement in the Iraq war and ongoing occupation.” It said it was also protesting against Blair’s role in the government’s decision to replace its Trudent nuclear missiles other aspects of his premiership that have “created global polarity rather than global solidarity.”
The silent vigil by Pax Christi at the historic cathedral is particularly embarrassing for the Catholic Church, which invited the former premier to be the first to speak in a series on faith and life in Britain. Blair also converted to Catholicism last year.
Earlier this week, the Stop the War Coalition (STWC) announced it was going to hold a demonstration to create a “wall of sound” to accompany the address given by “a war criminal who should have been silenced five years ago.”
“We will meet every hypocritical word he utters with a wall of sound representing the values and morality of that majority, which was against the war in 2003 and wants all the troops withdrawn now,” STWC said.
According to the BBC, the former premier was set to warn that while societies across the world are adapting to meet the challenges of globalization, religion is coping less well.
Faith faces an internal division between fundamentalism and those who believe religion is a spent force, he was due to say, while outlining the aim of a Faith Foundation for young people, that he is to launch later this year.
Since leaving office last July, Blair has become the Quartet’s peace envoy to the Middle East. He is also writing his memoirs, taken up several commercial jobs and is also set to teach a course on faith and globalization at Yale University in the US.