Pope to Go to England to Assist at Newman Beatification, Meet the Queen

This morning I read the New Yorker and John Lanchester's venomous book review of Tony Blair's new autobiography. Of course, the CW nowadays is that Tony's place in history is toast, largely because he supported GWB's courageous decision to rid the Middle East of its abiding curse, the megalomaniac and serial warlord, Saddam Hussein. Lanchester said that the only place religion is mentioned is the penultimate page of the book. Of course, JL doesn't mention why. That's because Tony Blair converted to Catholicism after stepping down from the PM job, and we all know how the Catholic Church is regarded by the Satan worshippers of the Upper West Side who read TNY.

Now the Pope is going to the UK to assist in the beatification ceremony of John Newman, the most brilliant writer of the 19th c. in English and author of the greatest autobiography in the language in any century. An attorney, ugh, named Jack Sullivan in Boston was cured through Newman's intercession, and it is unprecedented for this Pope to go to another country for a beatification. The Pope will meet later this month with the titular head of the Church of England, Queen Elizabeth II, Defender of the Faith, a title Henry VIII "earned" by arguing against Luther before he himself went rogue.

This is unprecedented and the popularity of the "Old Faith" has been rising in England as Catholic Churches are packed on Sunday and Anglican Churches not so much. The German Pope is already making moves to get closer to the Lutheran hierarchy in his native Deutschland, where he is/was a respected philosopher corresponding with the Frankfurt School, including Jurgen Habermas. Now perhaps he can stimulate a greater dialogue with actual Christian prelates among the Anglican elites, as the Anglicans overseas already are far less wobbly on the Ten Commandments than the Dean of Canterbury, who advocates shoplifting and Sharia Law among other eccentricities.