The Pope and Bush: Brothers in Arms
April 23rd, 2008 by WILLIAM KERN
![[NZZ am Sonntag, Switzerland]](http://worldmeets.us/images/bushpope_nzzamsonntag.gif)
Why is it that President Bush and Pope Benedict XVI get along so well? According to this editorial from El Tiempo, Colombia’s largest newspaper:
“Bush sees the world in terms of good and evil, and he considers that only a united front encompassing all 2.2 billion Judeo-Christians will be able to resist Islam. Recent decades have seen increasing religious tension and the spread of theocracies, which now encompass almost all Arab countries.”
In describing Bush’s welcome to the Pope, El Tiempo’s editorial board put it this way,
“The scene of a Protestant-President Bush - being the first to sing Happy 81st Birthday to a Catholic Pope is just as memorable as a Catholic President - Kennedy - got a sensual “Happy Birthday” from by Marilyn Monroe.”
And in explaining the recent behavior of Hillary and Obama toward Catholics and why the Pope ignored “old Catholics of Boston” for “new Hispanic Catholics,” the newspaper says,
“Therein lies the future of Gringo Catholicism. It could also be the future of candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, striving to win back an electorate that always sympathized with the Democratic Party, but which moved toward the Republicans in 2004. These days, both have careful to publicly display their Catholic advisers.”
EDITORIAL
Translated By Douglas Myles Rasmussen
April 21, 2008
Colombia - El Tiempo - Original Article (Spanish)
Benedict XVI and the United States get on well, as demonstrated by the visit of the Holy Father and Bush’s celebration of his birthday.
The most glorious moment for Catholics in the United States occurred in 1961 when, for the only time, a Catholic, Apostolic and Roman politician - John F. Kennedy - was elected president. The most lamentable moment was when, beginning in 2002, it was revealed that some 10,000 cases of pedophilia had been committed by Catholic priests over the course of 30 years. Nearly 3,000 church leaders in the country have been prosecuted for abusing minors and the Church paid $2 billion in compensation. So it was hoped that the first Papal visit since then would refer to the crisis of the “hot sacristies” which left seminaries empty, forced over 800 parishes to close and left 3,238 churches without a full-time priest.
Benedict XVI is showing, during his five-day visit to the United States, that the gentleness of his manner hasn’t reduced the vigor with which he repudiates the pedophilia of his pastors. On at least three occasions he asked for forgiveness, and he met with young people who had suffered sexual abuse. By confronting the situation with strength and frankness, the Holy Father seeks to overcome the shameful attitude of concealment and pusillanimity with which the Church handled the scandal, an attitude that neither John Paul II, nor the Vatican hierarchy, nor the hierarchy of other countries, including Colombia, has not been free of.
His trip seemed less spectacular than those of his predecessor to the same country; but all the same, Benedict’s visit will have better effects on the Catholic community which accounts for 1 in 4 Americans. There were no extraordinary expectations for his trip, except that George Bush exceptionally received him at the airport to show that, beyond honoring the patriarch of a faith or a head of state, he was celebrating a religion. The scene of a Protestant-President Bush - being the first to sing Happy 81st Birthday to a Catholic Pope is just as memorable as a Catholic President - Kennedy - got a sensual “Happy Birthday” from by Marilyn Monroe.
Although it is rumored that Bush might convert to Catholicism, as did former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, it is nothing more than theological gossip . What is true is that Bush sees the world in terms of good and evil, and he considers that only a united front encompassing all 2.2 billion Judeo-Christians will be able to resist Islam, which, with its 1.3 billion adherents, has passed Catholicism as the religion with the greatest number of faithful.
For the time being, the Pope, who presided over full stadiums and spoke before the United Nations, didn’t direct his gaze at the old Irish Catholics of Boston - a city he didn’t even visit.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing foreign press coverage of the Pope’s visit and the U.S. election.
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