Oh God, Vatican turns to Blair for advise on Syria

Like other aggressive atheists I have some respect and admiration for the reigning Pope. After all, he reached out to people like me. Some would say he grovelled, although I am too magnanimous for that. I fear our Pope has been receiving some seriously poor guidance from his managers concerning the forthcoming Vatican workshop on Syria.. Blair has already damaged its credibility by just appearing on the speaker list. Did anyone glance at the man's CV? A Vatican PR fuckup of the first order. Brainstorming is the very last thing we want from Blair.  The Vatican might not be the Crawford Ranch, and indeed the pope isn't the president of the United States for that matter, but Blair is a curse, like always. 

The Vatican will host a brainstorming workshop on Jan. 13 about how to achieve a cease-fire in Syria so humanitarian aid can be delivered and how to end persecution of Christians there.

The Pontifical Academy of Sciences has lined up experts from the United States, Russia and elsewhere. Speakers include Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, and Mohamed ElBaradei, an Egyptian who is a former chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Negotiations between the Damascus government and opposition representatives are scheduled to begin on Jan. 24 at the U.N.'s international headquarters in Geneva.

Pope Francis has said a military solution to the Syrian conflict would be "futile."

Syria's Christians fear they are being targeted by extremists seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad. Link