Pope Blesses Bush, Condemns Life-Hating Baby-Killing Dems to Eternal Hell

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/6/9/84646.shtml?s=os

Bush Meets Pope, Promotes U.S. AIDS Work

NewsMax.com Wires Saturday, June 9, 2007

ROME -- President Bush, in his first meeting with Pope Benedict XVI,

defended his humanitarian record around the globe, telling the papal leader

on Saturday about U.S. efforts to battle AIDS in Africa.

After posing for photos and sharing a few laughs, Benedict asked the

president about his meetings with leaders of other industrialized nations in

Germany - the pontiff's homeland. Then, the topic changed to international

aid.

"I've got a very strong AIDS initiative," Bush said, sitting with Benedict

at a small desk in the pope's private library at the Vatican.

The president promised the pope that he'd work to get Congress to double the

current U.S. commitment for combatting AIDS in Africa to $30 billion over

the next five years.

The pope also asked the president about his meeting in Germany with Russian

President Vladimir Putin, who has expressed opposition to a U.S. missile

shield in Europe.

"The dialogue with Putin was also good?" the pope asked.

Bush, eyeing photographers and reporters who were about to be escorted from

the room, replied: "Umm. I'll tell you in a minute."

The pontiff gave the president a drawing of St. Peter's Basillica, an

official Vatican medal and coins. "It's beautiful, thank you," Bush said of

the drawing.

The president gave the pope a rare edition of an autobiography of John

Carroll, the first archbishop in the United States and founder of the Roman

Catholic Church in America. Bush also gave the pope lithographs of documents

from the National Archives and a walking sticking made by a former homeless

man in Dallas, Texas. Bush also has one of the white sticks, which are

inscribed with the Ten Commandments.

Bush's visit was met with heavy security. Thousands of police deployed in

downtown Rome to counter demonstrations by anti-globalization groups and

far-left parties against Bush's meetings with the pope and Italian

officials.

Dozens of trucks and buses surrounded the Colosseum, the downtown Piazza

Venezia and other historic venues as scores of officers, some in anti-riot

gear, poured from their vehicles.

White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino shrugged off the anti-Bush

protests. "That is what democracy is all about," she said. "He understands

not everybody is going to agree with him."

Bush was greeted in the courtyard of the Vatican by members of the Swiss

Guard, the elite papal security corps dressed in their distinctive orange,

blue and red-stripped uniforms.

In a statement, the Vatican said Bush had "warm" talks with the pope and the

Vatican's No. 2 official, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. They discussed

international politics, particularly in the Middle East, the

Israel-Palestinian conflict, Lebanon, the "worrisome situation in Iraq" and

the "critical conditions in which the Christian communities (in Iraq) are

found," the statement said.

The pontiff expressed his hope for a `'regional" and `'negotiated" solution

of conflicts and crises that afflict the region, the Vatican said. Attention

was also give to Africa, the humanitarian crisis in Darfur and Latin

America.

They also discussed moral and religious questions relating to human rights

and religious freedom, the defense and promotion of life, marriage and the

family and sustainable development, the Vatican said.

Bush arrived in Rome Friday night, after a stop in the Czech Republic, three

days at a summit of industrialized democracies on Germany's northern coast,

and a quick, three-hour visit to Poland. A stomach ailment forced Bush to

miss a few meetings at the summit in Germany, but Perino said the president,

while "not 100 percent," was feeling better.

The president stays in Rome Saturday night before going on to Albania and

Bulgaria.

While in Rome, Bush visited, at the U.S. embassy, with members of a lay

Roman Catholic organization, thanking them for being part of "the

international army of compassion" and said he shares their commitment to

helping the poor. The Sant'Egidio Community has a $25 million program to

provide free antiretroviral drugs for HIV-positive people in 10 African

countries, along with follow-up and home care.

Bush's limousine stalled between the Vatican and the U.S. embassy because of

an unknown problem, White House counselor Dan Bartlett said. It took about

two minutes for the motorcade to get going again. He said Bush did not get

out of the car during the stop and resumed his ride in the same limousine.

As it left the embassy, Bush's motorcade passed a mechanic working under the

hood of one of the presidential limousines.

Bush began his day with a short meeting with Italian President Giorgio

Napolitano at Quirinale Palace, his official residence. Later, he met with

Premier Romano Prodi.

Perino said the Italian president told Bush that there had been speculation

that U.S.-Italy relations would slide under Prodi. She said Bush told

Napolitano: "The opposite has proven true."

Italian-U.S. relations, however, are a bit strained.

Just hours before Bush's arrival Friday, the first trial involving the CIA's

extraordinary rendition program opened in a Milan courtroom. Along with the

26 Americans on trial for the abduction of an Egyptian cleric, a U.S.

soldier is on trial in Rome for the March 2005 slaying of an Italian spy in

Baghdad. In both cases, the U.S. citizens are being tried in absentia.

Meanwhile, a report out Friday from European investigator Dick Marty accused

Italy and Germany of obstructing his probe into alleged secret prisons run

by CIA in Europe. Marty said they were located in Poland and Romania from

2003 to 2005 to interrogate suspected terrorists.

Italy also has withdrawn troops from Iraq and is reluctant to send

additional soldiers to Afghanistan.

Washington is concerned that U.S. troops, along with those from Canada and

Britain and elsewhere, are the only NATO countries sending forces to fight

the Taliban in the most violent areas in the south. Other NATO-contributing

countries, such as Germany, France and Italy, restrict the use of their

forces to relatively peaceful areas of the north.

Prodi ousted Silvio Berlusconi a year ago, replacing a like-minded

conservative and staunch ally of Bush's with a center-left leader whose

government has spared Washington no criticism.

Despite differences, Bush and Prodi have said they want good ties. Still,

the U.S. leader is hedging his bets on Italian politics. He'll end his day

with a private talk with his old friend Berlusconi.