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.
You said:
“I have no knowledge of that. SO if that oath is fake, show me the real one.”
Now, I see you’ve been given the smack-down by the RM...so you’re now aware that the “oath” you are “familiar” with is a fraud...but that still doesn’t eliminate the fact that you’ve tossed this piece of garbage in the Knights’ yard.
I am a Fourth Degree Knight.
Each of our degree ceremonies is “secret” insofar as we keep the contents of the ceremonies secret from the general public. Priests are, however, always welcome at our ceremonies. We do not keep these things secret to hide things so much as to preserve them.
Each of our tenets - charity, unity, fraternity and patriotism - is tied to each of our degrees. The degree ceremonies are powerful experiences for those who go through them. I, for one, experienced intense ranges of emotions and gained much from the experiences.
Those experiences would have been greatly diminished had I known up front what to expect. The secrecy is key to allowing all Knights to get the full benefit from the experience.
I assume, Levinite, that you have finished high school. Would a test for which you already had the answers been a valid gauge of your knowledge?
Would you wish to see a movie knowing how it ended?
You've noticed that,too? Knowing that all this FR hatred is archived on google for all the world to see. It's sad.
Members of the Knights of Columbus, from left, Paul Lambert, Richard Head, Anthony Fortunato, and Charles Gallina, gather along Pennsylvania Ave. across the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April, 15, 2008, The Knights of Columbus are the honor guards for Pope Benedict XVI who arrives Tuesday.
Amen.
Pretty despicable link you readily provided.
Ah Ha!
YOU write for Bill Mahr, don’t you!
(ok..Joke on your Joke)
Sacriligious, snarky comments about
elements of the Catholic faith on a
thread referring to same, or on any
thread referring to another religion
to which the posters relate, are pretty
low class.
And your defensive sarcasm after
you’ve been called on it compounds
the offenses.
The fact that you say you don’t get
offended on threads where I’m assuming
your religion is dissed, displays a
sad layer of spiritual emptiness and
cynicism. I offer a prayer for you.
I think it’s time.
Building Ties With Catholics A Bush Priority
Excerpt:
“During a private meeting in the White House living quarters last year with the Roman Catholic bishop of Hong Kong, President Bush expressed passionate appreciation for the church’s defense of human life on abortion and other issues.
As recounted by former speechwriter Bill McGurn, who was at the meeting, Bush told Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-Kiun that “the church is the rock — it is the only thing that can withstand the wave of secularization, which says you can kill someone else to make your own life more convenient. He said the Catholic Church must never give in on this.”
~~~
God bless Pres. Bush and protect Pope Benedict XVI
on this journey.
Pope Benedict’s comments today:
““It is a great suffering for the Church in the United States and for the Church in general and for me personally that this could happen,” the Pope said. “It’s difficult for me to understand how it was possible that priests betrayed in this way their mission to give healing, to give the love of God to these children,” he said.
“I am deeply ashamed and we will do what is possible so this cannot happen again in the future,” he added. He promised that the Church would do everything possible to screen candidates for the priesthood “so that only really sound persons can be admitted”.
“We will absolutely exclude paedophiles from the sacred ministry. It is more important to have good priests than many priests. We will do everything possible to heal this wound.”
You are a disruptor, plain and simple.
I rummaging through my stash of indulgences for my Opus Dei Sock Puppet. He and I vill vant to talk mit you.
I would think that priests molesting kids would be low class but I guess you know better than me. Maybe you should offer your prayers for those tens of thousands of kids rather than me.
Predictable, to the end.
My thought exactly. That was the wierdest sentence in this odd article.
Photos of the Knights at the White House at the K of C site:
http://www.kofc.org/un/index.cfm#
Click on More Photos.
Thanks!
Exactly!
Stop telling everyone our secrets! Now I gotta go to the my evil Irish Catholic Legal Clubs to plot to take over the judiciary :)
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