Times of London

As Prime Minister, faith was an issue he talked about rarely — it was not going to give him answers about public-service reform, he explained.

This was summed up by Alastair Campbell, his press secretary, who famously said: “We don’t do God.” It is clear now though, that freed from the burdens of office, Mr Blair does God very publicly.

“If you are somebody of faith it affects your politics, it affects everything that you do,” he said. “But when I was Prime Minister, if I was to give interviews on faith, I’d just have ended up with a great load of trouble.”

Issues of faith have clearly been consuming Mr Blair. Since leaving office, he has converted to Roman Catholicism. This requires much thought and reflection. After confessing serious sins, a convert must make the “Rite of Reception”, including saying that: “I believe and profess all that the Holy Catholic Church believes, teaches and proclaims to be revealed by God.” To have come to that conclusion, surely Mr Blair must have decided there was something wrong with the Church of England’s conception of God?

“At the time I made the change, I said that I did so making no criticism of Church of England. I’d been attending Mass for 20 years with my family. I can’t take Communion in a Catholic church without being a Catholic. For me, it was a personal decision strongly influenced by family.”

Surely Mr Blair converted to do more than end an awkward moment on Sundays? Though he intends to engage others in questions of faith, he seems awkward about some aspects of his beliefs and wants to avoid an evangelical posture. For example, when asked whether he thought a person would be better off believing that Jesus was the Son of God, he said: “I believe in and I hold the doctrines of the Christian faith. But I think that when you start to engage in that type of thing — that actually you’d be better off if you converted to my faith — if you’re not incredibly careful about how you approach that conversation — that’s actually what leads to a lot of confrontation and difficulty.”

This answer tells you something important about his Faith Foundation. While Mr Blair may have changed the subject to talk about religion, he remains to his fingertips a politician. He knows that, while the fact of his religious faith is essential to making his initiative work, the content of it might get in the way.