Cherie Blair, Catholic wife of the former British PM and recent convert Tony, in December spoke at the Angelicum in Rome despite some protests over her pro-life bona fides. Now she tells The Times of Malta she is “saddened” by the pope’s recent comments in Africa that condoms worsen the spread of AIDS:

“I think we do have to understand that there is concern about promiscuity. But there’s also a real concern about saving lives and I absolutely believe, and scientific evidence shows, that condoms do save lives. Therefore, when there’s a choice between endangering and not endangering life, we should always choose life,” she stressed in an interview.

Apparently she also winks about how the couple’s youngest, Leo, was conceived:

She recounts how Leo was conceived because she had decided to leave this ‘equipment’ behind during the couple’s visit to Balmoral, the Queen’s residence in Scotland, after a diligent courtier had embarrassingly unpacked her overnight bag during the previous visit.

Mrs Blair has never revealed what this equipment could possibly be, and as she sits back into the sofa in the Phoenicia Hotel’s lounge, her eyes twinkle teasingly.

Will that natural family planning moment be enough to counterbalance the condom crtiique and get her another invite to a pontifical university?

Maybe not, now that husband Tony has weighed in with a critique of the church’s official stance toward homosexuals. Some good insights here:

“Actually, we need an attitude of mind where rethinking and the concept of evolving attitudes becomes part of the discipline with which you approach your religious faith,” Blair said in an interview published in Attitude, a magazine aimed at gays.

Pope Benedict XVI, when he was still a cardinal in 1986, described homosexuality as “an objective disorder.”

Asked about that comment, Blair said “there is a huge generation difference here.”

“And there’s probably that same fear amongst religious leaders that if you concede ground on an issue like this, because attitudes and thinking evolve over time, where does that end?” Blair said.

“You’d start having to rethink many, many things. Now, my view is that rethinking is good, so let’s carry on rethinking.”

Dan Gilgoff at USNews has reax from Bill Donohue–he was Catholic before Blair, you know–who is not pleased:

Blair should put his cards on the table. Does he object to the Catholic Church’s teachings on sexuality, which proscribes sex outside of marriage? If so, we need to know why he rejects the Church’s teachings. For example, does he reject the Church teachings on adultery?

[Hat tip to CWNews.]