Closet Catholic In the White House? (you be the judge)

Creative Minority Reports ^ | April 15, 2008 | Patrick Archbold

[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.

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."

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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."

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.

Color me skeptical, but I don't think so.

[lastchance]

How can that be? Everyone knows that Irish Catholics spend too much time drinking, beating their wives and 28 children and dumping kittens on the highway to have time for plotting take overs of the judiciary.

[flaglady47]

“Quite to the contrary: Bush has been a Methodist. He found the United Methodist Church, which is the predominant white Methodist church in the DC area to be so political and intolerant, that, shortly following his election, he could not attend their services: no matter where he went, the pastor would angrily denounce him, pointing his finger at him as an object of hate, throughout his sermon. Bush began attending black Methodist churches (AME?), until they became too hostile following the outbreak of war.

As of late, Bush appears to not belong to any specific congregation; he has attended St. John’s Episcopal church, which is right next to the White House, many times, but plainly he must be uncomfortable with the strife of that church. If anything, his attendance at an Anglican church is consistent with seeking a more liturgical, formalized style of worship. It may well be that he is “shopping” for a spiritual home.”

I think equal to looking at President Bush as a possible convert to Catholicism, one should look to Laura Bush as an even greater candidate. I’m not sure what religion Laura was raised in, however, I see her manifesting great interest in Catholicism. She made a trip by herself with her daughter to the Vatican and met with the Pope herself. She always puts a lace headscarf on which as a Protestant she doesn’t need to do, and generally dresses in conservative black (including yesterday when meeting the Pope at the airport, as did her daughter Jenna). She has great deference for the Pope.

I think her interest in Catholicism is as great or greater than her husband George Bush’s is. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jeb Bush hasn’t been whispering in their ears also, as well as John Neuhaus. It will be interesting to see what develops here in the years to come. I too feel President Bush is seeking a spiritual home, call it a gut instinct (we females have it, you know). I think both George and Laura are seeking a new spiritual haven. Who’d want to stay a Methodist, the church of Hillary Clinton and of a rather militant liberalism in too many of their churches.

Perhaps that is one reason George Bush and Tony Blair established a good relationship in spite of being from different political parties. I think they connected on a moral and spiritual level and thus an equally strong repugnance to radical Islam which they consider a bastardization of religion. Blair’s spiritual inclinations eventually led to his open conversion to Catholicism. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same doesn’t happen with the Bush family one day in the future.

[MinuteGal]

Excellent analysis. I wonder if the Bush family has a favorite church in the Crawford area.

Leni