* Readies Big Welcome for Pope

[struggle4progress]

By JENNIFER LOVEN

WASHINGTON (AP) — ... The first <meeting between a pope and a sitting president> did not come until shortly after the end of World War I, when Woodrow Wilson was received at the Vatican by Pope Benedict XV in 1919. The next wasn't for 40 more years, when President Eisenhower saw Pope John XXIII in Rome. President Carter hosted the first White House visit by a pope, when John Paul II came on Oct. 6, 1979 ...

When Benedict was a cardinal before the 2003 invasion, the now-pontiff categorically dismissed the idea that a preventive strike against Iraq could be justified under Catholic doctrine. In his Easter message last year, Benedict said "nothing positive comes from Iraq."

Benedict told Bush at their first meeting last summer at the Vatican that he was concerned about "the worrisome situation in Iraq." Bush characterized the pontiff's concerns as mostly limited to the treatment of the Christian minority in Muslim-majority Iraq. The statement out of the Vatican suggested a broader discussion ...

In fact, the death penalty is another area of long-held disagreement, with Bush a strong supporter. Benedict also speaks forcefully against punitive immigration laws and the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, and for environmental protection and social welfare — all in ways that often run counter to Bush administration policies ...

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gBHn94t7__aW19bm_5sZATsv2_AAD9017B2O0

[MissWaverly]

1. Is that the Pope that won't vist Bush in the White House

I thought the party was just in honor of his visit, last I heard the Pope plans no stop at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, guess, he is
not a Barney fan, or do I mean "Blarney" fan.

[struggle4progress]

2. I think he simply begged out of the dinner on grounds of prior plans