Those were words of advice from Tony Blair’s grandmother — words he obviously ignored. And the rest is history.

He discusses that and more about his conversion with L’Osservatore Romano.

Highlights, from the Guardian, in London:

Tony Blair has revealed that after ignoring a stern warning from his great-grandmother about marrying a Catholic, he now finds his new-found faith has become the driving force in his life as he seeks to clear up the world’s religious conflicts.

Speaking to L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s daily newspaper, Blair said today he considers Pope Benedict’s belief that God is central to politics, society, economics and culture “brilliant”.

Weeks after a packed Catholic conference in Italy gave Blair an ovation for his words about the universality of Catholicism, the pope’s newspaper was equally effusive, calling the convert “a gentleman, educated, smiley, courteous in a way few know how to be”.

Letting slip the Vatican’s possible ambition for Blair, the paper also described him as “a probable future president of the European Union”.

With a double page spread at his disposal, Blair served up a mix of anecdotes about his conversion and strong indications of how faith is at the heart of every step he takes.

Starting with his childhood, he recalled how “in one of her rare moments of lucidity, during an illness, my great-grandmother – who was in many ways fantastic – told me, ‘Do whatever you want but don’t marry a Catholic.’ Which is exactly what I did.”

Despite ambitions to be a rock star or a footballer when he arrived at university, Blair said he was soon taken by his future wife, Cherie Booth, who was already an active Catholic on campus. During his recent speech, Blair said she had been the driving force behind his conversion shortly after leaving office two years ago. Today he added that conversion was “a path I have followed for 25 years,” helped, he added, by a crucial private mass held by Pope John Paul II in 2003.

“It was an episode which really struck me,” he said.

That mass was the much-discussed (and in some corners, highly controversial) event at which the non-Catholic, pro-abortion Prime Minister of Great Britain reportedly received communion from the pontiff.

You can find more at the link.