Posted on 06/04/2004 3:49:33 AM PDT by Jet Jaguar
ROME — President Bush and Pope John Paul II (search ) met briefly for talks in Vatican City Friday at the start of the president's 36-hour tour of Italy.
The president nodded and smiled as he greeted the 84-year-old pontiff, leaning down to hold his trembling hands. The closed-door talks between the president and the Pope, who has expressed fervent opposition to the war in Iraq, were to focus on Iraq and the conflict in the
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I agree.
FoxNews commentary: Small white boxes are rosary beads, typically given as gifts.
Beautiful building.
Bush is heading out.
The Bushes and their delegation are now leaving.
Thank you for the picture. I'm off to bed.
I'm not Catholic, so I may not understand everything, so please forgive any blunders I might make.
Is this something that will be significant to Catholics, to see the President with the Pope?
Would Kerry be allowed to have an audience with the Pope given his stance on abortion?
Good luck finding anything positive written about this. I just tried and this is the best that I can find.
Posted on Fri, Jun. 04, 2004
Bush meets with anti-war Pope John Paul II
SCOTT LINDLAW
Associated Press
ROME - President Bush met on Friday with Pope John Paul II, who has expressed fervent opposition to the war in Iraq, as he began a 36-hour tour of Italy and Vatican City.
The president nodded and smiled as he greeted the 84-year-old pontiff, leaning down to hold his trembling hands. Later, Bush was to meet with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a staunch supporter and U.S. ally in the war.
The official agenda of Bush's brief European trip is to honor the sacrifices and triumphs of World War II in Italy and France 60 years ago. But the Iraq war looms large in Italy, where most people think the United States should pull troops out, and Bush was making his case anew.
Thousands of police patrolled the streets of Rome on Friday as small groups of demonstrators marched around the capital, protesting Bush's visit. A large anti-war demonstration was expected to attract thousands later, but a few hundred protesters began early morning marches. A few tossed firecrackers at an Air Force building; others waved rainbow flags that said "No to War" and "Not in my name, Mr. Bush."
About 10,000 police have been deployed for the duration of the president's visit, but Bush saw no protesters as his motorcade rolled toward the Quirinale Palace where he began his day with a visit with Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, who holds the largely ceremonial title of Italian president. Later, Bush builded bridges with the pope, bearing a message that the United States was determined not to allow a repeat of the prisoner-abuse scandal in Iraq.
He spends the evening bolstering his friendship with Berlusconi, who has deployed about 3,000 troops to help rebuild Iraq. Bush was accompanied to Rome by Secretary of State Colin Powell, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and other top administration officials.
On Thursday, just hours before Bush arrived in Italy, several mortar shells were fired at the Italian Embassy in Baghdad, killing at least one Iraqi, the foreign minister in Rome said.
Friday marked Bush's third meeting with the pope since he became president - a measure of the importance both men place on the relationship. The president has aggressively chased Roman Catholic voters since he split the Catholic vote with Al Gore in 2000, and images of the pope greeting him could promote his standing among a group that represents about a quarter of the electorate.
More broadly, it reminds Bush's Christian base that he shares core values with the pope, such as an opposition to abortion.
But the meeting with John Paul II also serves as a reminder of the pope's firm opposition to the war in Iraq.
Many Italians agree with the pontiff. Last year a million people marched in the streets of Rome to protest plans for the war. A recent poll for the newsweekly L'Espresso found that 54 percent of Italians thought U.S. troops should pull out of Iraq, while 39 percent thought they should stay.
Vatican officials recently have issued sharp criticism of Bush administration's actions leading up to the war and the abuse inflicted by U.S. soldiers on Iraqi prisoners.
Last week the pope condemned torture as an intolerable affront to human dignity, lamenting that reports of abuses "constantly arrive from all continents." He made no mention of any countries or specific cases in his speech.
The U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, former Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson, recently sought clarification from the Vatican's foreign minister, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, who told an Italian newspaper the prisoner abuse scandal dealt a bigger blow to the United States than the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Both sides said they wanted to move beyond their dispute over Iraq in the meeting Friday.
The president was eager to talk to the pontiff about religious freedom in China and elsewhere, combatting AIDS, and international assistance issues, a senior administration official said Thursday. And Bush wanted to assure the pope that the United States was vigorously investigating the prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
Also Friday, Bush and his wife were laying a wreath at Fosse Adeatine, the site of a World War II atrocity in which Nazis occupying Italy killed 335 men and boys, 75 of them Jews.
Bush was spending a second night in Rome on Friday before meeting Saturday for the second time with Berlusconi, then leaving for France. There, Bush will work to rebuild ties with French President Jacques Chirac, who led the opposition to the war in Iraq.
On Sunday the president will head to Normandy on the French coast to help commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Allies' D-Day landing.
Pope Appeals for Return of Iraq's Sovereignty
Reuters
Friday, June 4, 2004; 7:01 AM
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope John Paul called for the speedy return of Iraq's sovereignty during a meeting at the Vatican on Friday with President Bush.
"It is the evident desire of everyone that this situation now be normalized as quickly as possible with the active participation of the international community and, in particular, the United Nations organization, in order to ensure a speedy return of Iraq's sovereignty, in conditions of security for all its people," the 84-year-old pontiff said.
The pope strongly opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq last year.
Not in my neck of the woods. Only the eldery ones are not too willful to do it.
Never Brag
Never Quit
Never let 'em know you're hurting
Be Honest
Be kind
Care about the other guy - help him
Don't look down on anyone
Compete hard
Play to win
Give the credit to the other guy
I'd say Our President has taken those lessons to heart!
Saddam's envoy met with the Pope so it appears the Pope does not discriminate between good and evil.
Not to make light of it, but the Pope does sound a bit like Brando's Godfather. And he was one tough old bastard!!! Go Pope!
OK...
Blasted AP! They've even got to get the words 'anti-war' in the headline.
I can't wait until the old media completely rots into a stinking dung pile.
After reading their article, I feel like something is stuck on the bottom of my shoe.
Not willingly. Here's a list of Popes who were driven from office:
Over a 2,000 year history that's an EXTREMELY short list.
Curiously, the more conservative elements if the Church are from the third world. These folk have not yet reached a powerful political critical mass (no pun intended) but they may yet do so.
So I think that politically it is a wash in this country. Bush though is unapologetically bring the good fight right into the heart of the European establishment so to some degree he has thwarted some of the French and German propaganda efforts here and shamed the hawkers of the anti religious bigotry that fill the Left.
What it does show is the great courage -even physical courage - of GWB. He faces his critics which open hands. It is just amazing.
According to the European (Spanish) radio station I listen to, anti-war protesters are already out blocking the streets and burning tires in Rome.
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