Bush in Rome: Extraordinary Scene

It was an unprecedented scene that appeared on American television sets late Wednesday: three American presidents kneeling in prayer at the foot of Pope John Paul II.

President Bush is the first U.S. president to attend the funeral of a pope; until now the highest ranking U.S. official to attend a papal funeral was Vice President Lyndon Johnson, who represented the U.S. at the 1963 funeral of Pope John XXIII.

On Wednesday, Mr. Bush became the first foreign dignitary to be ushered into St. Peter's Basilica where the body of John Paul II, who died Saturday, lay in state. And he was accompanied by two former presidents - his father, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton.

"It's also a very reassuring scene, that our presidents are in prayer is a wonderful, wonderful thing," says the Rev. Paul Robichaud, American rector of the Church of Santa Susanna in Rome. "But I think also the respect that all three of them have for Pope John Paul II is really represented by that scene that we saw."

There was some reaction within the Italian press about President Bush kneeling in front of a pope, who had basically told him, "Don't go to war."

Earlier, President Bush's father told reporters he regrets that he never had the opportunity to make a stronger case for the Gulf War in 1991 to the pope.

In an interview Thursday onThe Early Show, Father Robichaud said, "There was very, very mixed feelings here in Rome and particularly throughout Italy about the war itself. There have been constant demonstrations which we here in -- here in Italy - against the war and the continuing American presence in Iraq. So there is a lot of basic feeling against the war here and of course, the recent events of the shooting and journalists and death of the Italian security guard had a very profound effect."

Relations between the United States and Italy were strained last month when U.S. troops in Iraq fired on a car rushing an Italian journalist to freedom, killing an Italian intelligence officer and wounding the reporter.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi denounced the attack. Shortly thereafter, he announced plans to start to draw down his country's 3,000-strong contingent in Iraq in September, although he said the two events were not related.

The White House on Thursday expressed fresh regrets as President Bush and his two immediate predecessors paid a courtesy call on Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. They planned to have dinner with Berlusconi Thursday.

The political meetings followed their visit to St. Peter's Basilica, where they knelt for about five minutes, heads bowed, as choral music filled the huge structure. Joining the tribute were the two other members of their delegation, first lady Laura Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The American delegation took its place in the basilica at a wooden railing on one side of John Paul's bier. Hundreds of mourners filed by on the other side. The line was briefly stopped on the side of the U.S. visitors.

Told about a group of pilgrims from Poland who traveled 30 hours by bus only to find the lines to get into the basilica had been closed, who then became ecstatic upon learning they'd been reopened, Father Robichaud said, "Well, it pays to have faith. You know? It's something that John Paul II himself would be delighted by. And probably perhaps from his new place in heaven, John Paul may have engineered for his Polish people."

The American priest called the scene in St. Peter's Square "extraordinary." Even the music that is coming out of St. Peter's Square creates a tone of prayer throughout the whole area, he said.

"You know, the faith, the Christian faith. Is a pilgrimage together with God," he said. "Just in the experience I've had of the line over the last few days, that's what really struck me, is all kinds of people, young, old, from all countries of the world, together in peace, in prayer."

Mr. Bush and the two former presidents were also meeting Thursday with a group of U.S. Catholic leaders in Rome for the funeral, including 11 American cardinals who will participate in electing a new pope.

Among them, is Philadelphia's archbishop, Cardinal Justin Rigali, who worked shoulder-to-shoulder with John Paul during the first 15 years of his papacy, traveling with him literally around the world.

"This is a very important meeting," Rigali told The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. "We're not electing the CEO of a company. No, we're electing the pastor of the universal church. And therefore this is something of such great responsibility that it is superior to human wisdom."

He said the shoes pf John Paul II will be tough to fill, particularly in the way the late pontiff related to young people. "They listened to him, even hard things. He spoke to them about justice, he spoke to them about honesty, he spoke to them about chastity, he spoke to them about making something out of their life."

Another American cardinal, Adam Maida of Detroit, told Smith, "Never in my life have I felt a greater responsibility. To elect a successor of Peter the Vicar of Christ somehow in God's plan I'm here."

Cardinal Maida, whose parents were Polish immigrants, says his knows firsthand the late pope's mystical connection to his homeland. "There's no question that one of the first gestures that the Holy Father did was go to Poland. And the way he rallied that whole country. No on in that country could rally the country. Even the communists with all their twisting of arms and ordering the people couldn't get the crowds that he drew spontaneously," Cardinal Maida said.

Of his own work in Rome , he said, "I haven't the slightest idea how I became a cardinal or even a bishop I'm just trying to do my work. I'm going to listen and I'm going to pray I'm going to focus on God's spirit so whatever I do will be God's will as best as I can interpret it and understand it. Amen."