"For the first time in centuries, the West will have to come to terms with a seismic change happening about it," Tony Blair, former British prime minister, who recently converted to Catholicism, said in explaining his belief in the importance of religious faith.

"The East is rising. At the least it will demand parity with the West and perhaps more. But what values will this daunting new world use to guide it? I believe [that] in this world of rapid globalization where power is shifting away from its traditional center in the West, the world will be immeasurably poorer, more dangerous, more fragile and above all more aimless - I mean

without the necessary sense of the purpose to guide it on its journey - if it is without the strong spiritual dimension."

Blair apparently believes that the Catholic or other Christian faiths should underpin the "West" in meeting the challenges from the "East".