Bush meets Benedict

Along the way on his ambitious European business trip, President Bush met the Pope today. It’s interesting to see film footage of it on TV news, and then read press accounts. Here’s how the Chicago Tribune led the story:

In weeklong travels through Europe, President Bush has promoted his vision of “a freedom agenda” and thanked allies for support with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but here at The Holy See, in his first audience with Pope Benedict XVI, the president was reminded that all is not well in the world.

The president was reminded that all is not well in the world? How informative is that?

The Vatican, describing the private meeting of the pope and president today as “cordial,”’ said later that they had addressed “the international political situation” – including “the worrying situation in Iraq.”

Here’s the NY Times lead:

President Bush met today for the first time with Pope Benedict XVI, a religious conservative like the American president but who raised his worries in their private meeting about the war in Iraq.

“But”? As if religious conservatives normally don’t worry about the war in Iraq?

The exact substance of the meeting, described by the Vatican as “cordial,” was not released, but a church statement said the pope had expressed to Mr. Bush his concerns about the Middle East. The topics emphasized in meetings with the pope and his secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the statement said, were “Israeli-Palestinian questions, Lebanon, the worrying situation in Iraq and the critical conditions in which the Christian community finds itself.”

This is an important focus and I wish the press would give it more coverage, because the Christians in the Middle East are caught in a terrible and barely sustainable situation now, but facing the real threat of extinction in the Holy Land, birthplace of Christianity. Bush assured Benedict they’re doing all they can to help protect the freedoms of the Constitution in Iraq for everyone there. That’s hardly reassuring, given the situation, and Bush showed the strain of that burden in his brief remarks.

Their meeting covered other topics…

The pope also asked Mr. Bush whether “the dialogue with Putin was good,” apparently referring to tensions over an American plan to install an anti-missile system in Eastern Europe, which the Russian president has strongly opposed.

Mr. Bush, eyeing the reporters and photographers a few feet away who were straining to hear any news, said: “Umm, I’ll tell you in a minute.”

Mr. Bush also mentioned his plans to increase financing to combat AIDS in Africa, saying he would ask Congress to double to $30 billion the amount of money for the effort over five years.

After running through a sort of ‘state of the world’ report with Benedict, Bush got some relief.

The two men, as is traditional in such visits, traded gifts. The pope presented the president with an etching of St. Peter’s Square from the 17th century and a gold papal medallion. The president gave the pope a white walking stick made by a former homeless man turned artist from Texas, covered with the 10 commandments in multiple colors.

The pope double-checked with the president what was written on the stick.

Trust, but verify…

“The 10 commandments, sir,” the pope said. He did not use the normal honorific of “Your Holiness.”

But then, this is the president who winked at the Queen in a recent Rose Garden press conference.

After the meeting with Pope Benedict, Bush told reporters “I was talking to a very smart, loving man.”