U.S. PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH GOES ALL OUT IN HIS WELCOME OF THE POPE (Friday
Church News Notes, April 18, 2008, ht=
tp://www.wayoflife.org/
fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)=
-
President George Bush welcomed Pope Benedict XVI in an historic manner this
week. Bush met the pope’s plane when it arrived at Andrews Air Force =
Base
on Tuesday. The next morning the pope was welcomed to the White House with a
21-gun salute, and that night a fancy White House dinner was held in his ho=
nor.
All of these are firsts. Bush is a great fan of the popes. He has met with
popes five times. In 2005 Bush became the first sitting president to attend=
a
papal funeral (he knelt before John Paul II’s casket), and he told the
Catholic television network EWTN that he sees God in Benedict XVI’s eyes (“Bush Says He Sees God in Eye=
s of
Pope,” Zenit, April 13, 2008). The histor=
y of
president-papal relationships began with Woodrow Wilson’s audience wi=
th
Pope Benedict XV in Rome
in 1919. Forty years later Dwight Eisenhower met John XXIII. Since then eve=
ry U.S. pr=
esident
has met with a pope at least once, but it was Ronald Reagan who launched
U.S.-Vatican relations to a new high. It was under his administration that
formal diplomatic relationships were established between America and the Vatican. Harry Truman had tri=
ed it
in 1952 but was forced to back down by the strength of Protestant oppositio=
n.
By 1984 the “protest” had long since disappeared from American
Protestantism and Reagan had no problem establishing relationships with Rome. Not surpris=
ingly,
he had “behind-the-scenes” help from Billy Graham. In 1983 Reag=
an
asked Graham to make inquiries among evangelical leaders about the likely
response to the establishment of relations, and Graham explained in a
seven-page letter that there would be “few problems” (John Ashbrook, The New Neutralism II: Exposing the Gray=
of
Compromise, 1992). In 1986 Reagan sent a telegram to the pope commending
his syncretistic prayer meeting in Assisi
that brought together leaders of Christian denominations and pagan religion=
s to
pray for world peace. Reagan thanked the pope for his efforts to “lead
humanity toward a more tolerant, just and peaceful world” and assured=
the
pope of his prayers (Christian News, Dec. 22, 1986). In November 198=
7,
in an unprecedented act, Reagan flew to Miami
just to meet the pope when he landed on American soil. After meeting the pl=
ane,
Reagan was kept waiting for three hours for an opportunity to have a private
audience with the pope. He said to John Paul II, “As you exhort us, we
will listen” (USA Today, Sept. 11-12, 1987). It is obvious that
“conservative” politics does not equal spiritual wisdom. In fac=
t,
conservative republican presidents have done more than the
“liberals” to bring America
under God’s curse for yoking together with the Blasphemer on the Tiber. Where are the “separation of church and
state” folk when you really need them?