April 15, 2008
Bush Has Sought To Build Catholic Ties
Washington Post: Outreach To Catholics Has Been Major Element Of President's Agenda
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Play CBS Video Video America To Meet Pope Benedict Pope Benedict XVI is on his way to visit the U.S. where he is less well-known than his popular predecessor John Paul II. Jeff Glor reports and Harry Smith speaks to the Archbishop of Chicago.
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Video Looking Ahead To The Pope's Visit As Pope Benedict XVI prepares to visit the U.S., many are wondering what he hopes to accomplish during his stay. CBS News Vatican Consultant Fr. Thomas Williams weighs in.
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Video Papal Security At The Ready The U.S. Secret Service has been preparing for months to deal with any possible threat during the visit by Pope Benedict XVI. Bob Orr reports.
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President Bush met with Pope Benedict XVI at The Vatican last year. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
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Timeline Pope's U.S. Itinerary Daily events on the Pope's itinerary during his visit to the U.S. April 15-20.
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Interactive Pope Benedict In America The pontiff makes his first trip to the U.S., with stops in Washington and New York.
From Our Partner:
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."
To McGurn, a Catholic, it was striking that a Protestant president would see the Catholic Church as a rock. But it was also characteristic of a politician who has come to identify closely with Catholics and the powerful men who have led the church during his tenure in the White House.
A sign of this respect will come this afternoon, when Bush and first lady Laura Bush greet Pope Benedict XVI after his plane lands at Andrews Air Force Base, the first time in his seven years in office that the president will leave the White House to receive a visiting foreign dignitary. Bush will host Benedict tomorrow for a private 45-minute meeting in the Oval Office after an elaborate official arrival ceremony featuring soprano Kathleen Battle singing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." About 9,000 invited guests are expected on the South Lawn, more than were present for the arrival ceremony for Queen Elizabeth II last May.
In an interview last week with the Eternal Word Television Network, a Catholic news outlet, Bush said the robust White House welcome for Benedict reflects the pope's immense significance as a religious and moral leader. "I [also] subscribe to his notion that . . . there's right and wrong in life, that moral relativism has a danger of undermining the capacity to have more hopeful and free societies," Bush said. "I want to honor his convictions."
Building strong ties with Catholics in general -- and Benedict and his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, in particular -- has been a major element of the president's agenda since the 2000 political campaign. Former aides say his "compassionate conservative" agenda and emphasis on a "culture of life" have been shaped by the teachings of the church, while his political advisers have seen an opportunity to wrest Catholic voters from the Democratic Party.
But recently these efforts have met with the same mixed success Bush has experienced with other groups. In 2004, Republican identification ticked up among Catholics, and for the first time in exit polls dating to 1972, more Catholics by a narrow margin -- 38 to 36 percent -- called themselves Republicans than Democrats. But in the 2006 midterm elections, 41 percent identified as Democrats, 34 percent as Republicans. And that year, 55 percent of Catholics supported Democratic House candidates.
Bush's approval rating among Catholics stands at 33 percent in Washington Post-ABC News polling, matching his rating among the general public (Story, A4). At the start of the president's second term, 51 percent of Catholics approved of the way he was doing his job; the last time a majority of Catholics approved of his performance in office was three years ago.
"There's not one Catholic vote," said John C. Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. "Bush, with Karl Rove's help, targeted certain elements of the Catholic community very effectively, and they didn't try or were not effective with other parts of the Catholic community."
One source of tension with Catholics and the Vatican has been the Iraq war. During one of their meetings in Rome, in 2004, John Paul seemed to scold Bush over the conflict and the "deplorable events" connected to it. Catholic allies of the White House said they think the current pope has moved past that criticism and is focused primarily on the safety and security of the Christian minority inside Iraq, an issue they expect him to raise with Bush when they meet tomorrow.
"We're not living in 2003," said George Weigel, a prominent conservative Catholic theologian. "The Holy See, in its leadership positions, is in a very adult place -- they have turned the page, and I think the White House has turned the page. There is a shared goal -- namely, a stable, democratic Iraq that is safe for pluralism."
This will be the second time Bush has met with Benedict (he met with John Paul three times in Italy). When Bush and Benedict met for the first time, at the Vatican last June, among the subjects of conversation were efforts to address AIDS in Africa and religious liberty in China, Iraq and the broader Middle East, according to Rove, who traveled with the president before leaving the White House later in the summer.
"They know the president has spoken out publicly and privately about religious freedom in China, and they are appreciative of that," Rove said yesterday.
Some Catholic intellectuals say Bush and the pope have a different outlook on a number of issues, including how aggressively government should try to help the poor, but they do not expect to see such differences surface when the two leaders meet tomorrow.
"While they are going to have strong differences, I don't think they are going to have a confrontation," said John-Peter Pham, a James Madison University professor and former Vatican diplomat. The pope "is enough of a scholar to recognize that with all the faults and defects you could have, especially the whole issue of invading Iraq, that the United States presents a model for human rights, for good relations between church and state."
Weigel said Benedict and his aides see a confluence of interests with the Bush administration on many issues, such as AIDS in Africa and the role "life" issues should play in international organizations. "We're so obsessed on Iraq here, we see it as a huge stumbling block," he said. "They see the whole picture, and the whole picture is one of striing parallelism of concerns and initiatives."
Polling director Jon Cohen contributed to this report.
By Michael Abramowitz
© 2008 The Washington Post Company
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
Posted by mudrose at 11:12 AM : Apr 16, 2008
Yeah, DOOFUS and his toe tapping followers.
Posted by mudrose at 11:04 AM : Apr 16, 2008
Gee, does that mean all you toe tapping Republicons have to stay home? Or... are you going there get absolution for your perversions? I hear the Church ''knows'' perversions. Hee, Hee, Hee.
Posted by JJJASMAN
Thanks to the Islamofascists. You know those that practice the "Kill" faith.
Posted by veteran72 at 08:00 PM : Apr 15, 2008
A pity Mudrose wasn''''t invited to attend. They could joined together in a chorus of ''''Amerika uber Alles''''.
Posted by leftyintexas
Muddy will be in D.C. tomorrow and no fairies will be invited to attend.
Posted by veteran72 at 08:00 PM : Apr 15, 2008
A pity Mudrose wasn''t invited to attend. They could joined together in a chorus of ''Amerika uber Alles''.
Hmmm, A Homosexual Fairy commenting on Religion in the public square, something the Founders insisted be in the fabric of American Society. Wow! Fairies are always b/itching about religion, now aren''''t they?
posted by mudrose at 09:13 AM : Apr 16, 2008
Hmmm, a toe tapping Republicon pervert commenting on religion and always b/itching about Americans opposed to DOOFUS and BUTTHEAD. WOW! BLAH! BLAH! BLAH! Ha!Ha!Ha!
Posted by watcher269
Hmmm, A Homosexual Fairy commenting on Religion in the public square, something the Founders insisted be in the fabric of American Society. Wow! Fairies are always b/itching about religion, now aren''t they?
Bush admitted to the pope he does have a goal of creating and expanding two economic levels in the United States, Wealthy, and dirt poor.....
-Not mental a bit! why does that not apply to existing people in Iraq, Gaza, George?
Just another mark against the clown. Now he is supporting child abuse. Why does that not surprise me.
Posted by lvdragonlady
Oh, don''t worry, at least he doesn''t support homosexuality. Talk about child abuse.
Just another mark against the clown. Now he is supporting child abuse. Why does that not surprise me.
What a hoot! The one man in this country that absolutely has no morals or an honest bone in his body touting such krap!
- by prinzowhales April 15, 2008 3:54 PM EDT
- Yeah, building on the work of Henry Kissinger and OPERATION CONDOR which murdered, tortured and disappearing tens of thousands of South Americans... Now, no telling how far these two can go...the grandson of a prime US supporter of the Hitler Regime and the former Hitler Youth who has given the Church a Concordant of his own making.
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