Tony Blair continues to stand on the shore, gazing at the water and casually testing the water with his toe. But is he finally ready to dive in and swim the Tiber?

Rocco over at Whispers points us to this intriguing piece of news:

Tony Blair, the former prime minister of Great Britain who is now a special envoy to the Middle East, has accepted Cardinal Egan’s invitation to be the guest speaker at the 62nd Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner.

The annual charity benefit, a major event on New York’s social calendar, will be held on Thursday, Oct. 18, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

Blair, who joins a distinguished list of Smith Dinner speakers from the worlds of politics, the military, business and industry and entertainment, is the second British prime minister to speak. Winston Churchill was the first, addressing the dinner exactly 60 years ago in October 1947.

Past speakers include Presidents Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy, Sen. John McCain, former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell and comedian Bob Hope.

Blair, who became leader of Britain’s Labour Party in 1994, was prime minister from May 1997 until stepping down on June 27 of this year.

That same day, he was appointed special envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East on behalf of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia.

A centrist as prime minister, Blair was instrumental in negotiating the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that was a breakthrough in the Northern Ireland peace process after 30 years of conflict. He also was a strong supporter of U.S. foreign policy and a major participant in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

A member of the Church of England, Blair has shown an interest in the Catholic Church. His wife and children are Catholics and he has often attended Mass with them.

The Alfred E. Smith Dinner was established in 1946 to honor the memory of the former New York governor, a native of the Lower East Side, who was the first Catholic to run for president on a major party ticket as the Democratic candidate in 1928.

Stay tuned.

Earlier in the summer, there were rumblings that Blair might even be mulling becoming a deacon.