Posted on 04/15/2008 8:07:25 AM PDT by NYer
Daniel Burke at the Washington Post thinks that President Bush might be pulling a Tony Blair. Burke tells of the Catholic based culture that rules the west wing and some other lingering suspicions.
Shortly after Pope Benedict XVI's election in 2005, President Bush met with a small circle of advisers in the Oval Office. As some mentioned their own religious backgrounds, the president remarked that he had read one of the new pontiff's books about faith and culture in Western Europe.While this concept of a Catholic run White House may be humorous to some, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus says that it is not so far fetched.
Save for one other soul, Bush was the only non-Catholic in the room. But his interest in the pope's writings was no surprise to those around him. As the White House prepares to welcome Benedict on Tuesday, many in Bush's inner circle expect the pontiff to find a kindred spirit in the president. Because if Bill Clinton can be called America's first black president, some say, then George W. Bush could well be the nation's first Catholic president.
***
"I don't think there's any question about it," says Rick Santorum, former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and a devout Catholic, who was the first to give Bush the "Catholic president" label. "He's certainly much more Catholic than Kennedy."
Bush has also placed Catholics in prominent roles in the federal government and relied on Catholic tradition to make a public case for everything from his faith-based initiative to antiabortion legislation. He has wedded Catholic intellectualism with evangelical political savvy to forge a powerful electoral coalition.Finally, Burke hints that some close to the President might not be suprised if he pulled a Tony Blair one day by converting after leaving office.
"There is an awareness in the White House that the rich Catholic intellectual tradition is a resource for making the links between Christian faith, religiously grounded moral judgments and public policy," says Richard John Neuhaus, a Catholic priest and editor of the journal First Things who has tutored Bush in the church's social doctrines for nearly a decade.
Moreover, people close to Bush say that he has professed a not-so-secret admiration for the church's discipline and is personally attracted to the breadth and unity of its teachings. A New York priest who has befriended the president said that Bush respects the way Catholicism starts at the foundation -- with the notion that the papacy is willed by God and that the pope is Peter's successor. "I think what fascinates him about Catholicism is its historical plausibility," says this priest. "He does appreciate the systematic theology of the church, its intellectual cogency and stability." The priest also says that Bush "is not unaware of how evangelicalism -- by comparison with Catholicism -- may seem more limited both theologically and historically."Color me skeptical, but I don't think so.
Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, another evangelical with an affinity for Catholic teaching, says that the key to understanding Bush's domestic policy is to view it through the lens of Rome. Others go a step further.
Paul Weyrich, an architect of the religious right, detects in Bush shades of former British prime minister Tony Blair, who converted to Catholicism last year. "I think he is a secret believer," Weyrich says of Bush. Similarly, John DiIulio, Bush's first director of faith-based initiatives, has called the president a "closet Catholic." And he was only half-kidding.
If he’s turned his life over to Christ, he is home.
Do you love the Roman Catholic Church more than you love Christ? The gospel is Jesus, not Rome.
Since JFK never observed Catholic beliefs, that would make George W. Bush the closest thing we've ever had to a "Catholic" President.
This is some seriously self-serving reasoning, and quite a stretch just to make a silly rhetorical point, don't you think? Whatever you may think of his beliefs and his failings as a Catholic, JFK was, nonetheless, a Catholic, and the first (and only) Catholic ever elected President of the United States.
Yes to the second part, but I think a person is more likely to take an interest in a different church if he's not fully happy with his present church for some reason.
Someone pointed out above that President Bush has had trouble finding a suitable congregation in Washington. I didn't know that, and it makes me sad for him. How awful to go to church and have the pastor railing at your administration and you personally!
I guess I should start worrying about what you Protestants are up to, since many of my fellow Catholics were once Protestants themselves.
One must question the good faith, or failing that, the intelligence, of folks who would believe such tripe.
Reading these threads is like reading "People" magazine in the grocery line. I didn't know people like that really existed.
Ping...
Must be awful (and surely inappropriate from the pulpit!). Then sometimes there's the opposite problem: I read that Truman, when he got to the White House, first went to the "stylish" church nearby -- but the pastor continually drew attention to him in a fawning way, and it drove him nuts! So he started going to a more distant, less "in" church where he was merely treated as another member of the congregation.
Many Bishops have acted in good faith. Our little rural parish had a priest who abused our sons. IMMEDIATELY upon hearing this testimony our Bishop drove straight here and questioned the priest. He was removed right then and there from any active roll as a priest. Not one day after that date was he allowed the roll of priest in our church.
While there are certainly Bishops and others who failed, there are many who haven’t. To charge the entire church with such behaviour is “overblown”.
I personnally know men who have been victims of such abuse. I would never deny such things have happened.
And, yes, Christ will be the judge.
I never cease to be amazed at how firmly some clutch to their own ignorance and condemn or criticize what they are ignorant of. As husbands and fathers our first priority is to our families before our neighbors and community. A priest's first priority must be to his flock. Having a wife and family would compromise this.
129 posted on April 15, 2008 12:18:09 PM MDT by Natural Law
We can call on Yah'shua as our High Priest to approach YHvH.
Peter who many believe was the first Pontiff stated:
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach Adonai
NAsbU 1 Peter 2:9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD,
If as Peter states that we are all a Royal Priesthood,
A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you
may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of
darkness into His marvelous light;
then there is no need for an Uber Caste of Priests
for the followers of the Christ to approach YHvH.NAsbU Matthew 27:51 And behold, the veil of the temple was torn
When the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom all of humanity
in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split
can approach the creator of the universe without an intermediary.
When do you believe Yah'shua created the "sacrament of marriage" ?
Peter's quoting Exodus 19:6. Do you dispute that Israel had a class of priests who were set apart from the rest of the people?
The real message of Christ, and the reason he was assassinated by the priests, was that you don't need any churches or priests. You have a direct personal access to God. The bottom line is that God doesn't give a damn which pew your ass is in, but he cares a whole lot about what is in your heart. However, that doesn't mean that you are denied that access because of the church you attend or don't attend or if you don't use weird spelling so that you can Jedi-Mind Trick God into not thinking you not typing His name.
Yes, we need to snoop around a little bit AND worry. You never know what’s going to happen. Besides, we should not allow a brother to fall into sin simply because we didn’t care enough to warn him.
“Rhodes Scholars”
LOL!! I didn't even notice that! Look at the company we Knights keep.
“Reading these threads is like reading ‘People’ magazine in the grocery line. I didn't know people like that really existed.”
Proof of life on the left side of the bell curve.
sitetest
We could argue here till the cow’s come home and get nowhere. I am not coping out, I’m just tired.(really) But, speaking of “high praise,” in all seriousness, how is GWB required to greet the Pope, if you know? Is he required to bow, kneel and or kiss the Pontiff’s ring? Will normal protocol in greeting the Pope required of Bush? And for all heads of state, for that matter? (Putin, King Fayahd, etc.)
The Pope is a head of state. Bush is going to greet the Pope at the airport, something he has never done for any foreign dignitary.
So JFK didn't count?
Why would he be a “secret” Catholic? I doubt he’d be ashamed to proclaim his faith.
What do you think? "in all seriousness" ... give me a break.
****************
LOL! That one always gets me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.