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George W Bush meets Pope amid claims he might convert to Catholicism
Telegraph.co.uk ^

Posted on 06/15/2008 6:36:27 AM PDT by kronos77

George W Bush and Pope Benedict XVI have held an intimate meeting in Rome as rumours mounted in Italy that the president may follow in Tony Blair's footsteps and convert to Catholicism.

The two men spoke for half an hour in the 12th century Tower of St John, a private area in the Vatican gardens which is used by the pope for private reflection.

The usual protocol for heads-of-state is a meeting in the pope's library in the Apostolic Palace, but a spokesman for the Vatican said Benedict wanted to reward Mr Bush for the "warmth" of his reception at the White House earlier this year.

The two men have grown increasingly close in the past two years, and Mr Bush was overheard whispering: "What an honour, what an honour, what an honour!" as he ascended the steps to the tower.

After a stroll through the Vatican gardens, the men listened to a recital by the choir of the Sistine Chapel. However, Mr Bush did not, as expected, kneel in prayer before the Grotto of the Madonna of Lourdes. It was thought that he may have prayed with the pope in private. Mr Bush prayed with Benedict in the Oval Office during the Papal visit to the US in April.

Several Italian newspapers cited Vatican sources suggesting that Mr Bush may be prepared to convert. One source told Il Foglio, an authoritative newspaper, that "Anything is possible, especially for a born-again Christian such as Bush."

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bush; bushvisit; catholicism; italy; popebenedict; printedon13june2008; religion; vatican
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1 posted on 06/15/2008 6:36:27 AM PDT by kronos77
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To: Salvation

Ping!


2 posted on 06/15/2008 6:37:08 AM PDT by kronos77 (Kosovo is Serbian Jerusalem. No Serbia without Kosovo.)
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To: kronos77

He was just being nice..jeez..can’t morons from england realize that..


3 posted on 06/15/2008 6:40:59 AM PDT by BerniesFriend
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To: BerniesFriend

http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/jun/14/bushs-tour-of-vatican-fuels-conversion-rumors/


4 posted on 06/15/2008 6:44:08 AM PDT by kronos77 (Kosovo is Serbian Jerusalem. No Serbia without Kosovo.)
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To: kronos77
i can hear heads exploding this very minute...
5 posted on 06/15/2008 6:44:13 AM PDT by Chode (American Hedonist ©® - CTHULHU/SHOGGOTH '08 = Nothing LESS!!!)
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To: kronos77

Anything for a story. This is nothing but 100% speculation. They didn’t even bother to quote the old standby “unnamed sources” The best they could come up with was that because Bush is born again “anything is possible”


6 posted on 06/15/2008 6:45:44 AM PDT by lexusppd
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To: Chode

bttt


7 posted on 06/15/2008 6:46:34 AM PDT by ConservativeMan55
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To: BerniesFriend
Morons from England started that whole crazy reformation, now they have men getting married to each other in the Anglican church.

Now vermin like that Rev Wright and Jim Baker and Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson can run around calling themselves "Reverend" and don't have to answer to anybody.

At least that crazy Catholic Priest Pflager got his rear end handed to him by his Bishop.

If Luther were alive he would convert right back.

8 posted on 06/15/2008 6:47:00 AM PDT by Rome2000 (Peace is not an option)
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To: lexusppd

“Anything for a story.”

Says it all.


9 posted on 06/15/2008 6:48:08 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (I reserve the right to misinterpret the comments of any and all pesters)
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To: kronos77
In England, do they keep the Telgraph on a rack next to the supermarket cashiers?
10 posted on 06/15/2008 6:49:25 AM PDT by badpacifist (Personal attacks on someones opinion of a "news article" you happened to post is asinine.)
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To: kronos77
George W Bush meets Pope amid claims he might convert to Catholicism

I thought the Pope already was Catholic????

11 posted on 06/15/2008 6:55:10 AM PDT by mwyounce
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To: kronos77

I believe Bush is currently a Methodist and based on the abject liberalism on display at my sister-in-law’s Methodist Church, I can very well see him converting to the Church of Rome. No doubt the radical leftism of the present day Church of England was what prompted Tony Blair’s conversion.


12 posted on 06/15/2008 6:57:33 AM PDT by Menehune56 ("Let them hate so long as they fear" (Oderint Dum Metuant), Lucius Accius, (170 BC - 86 BC))
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To: lexusppd

Jeb converted to Catholicism. So.......


13 posted on 06/15/2008 6:59:20 AM PDT by Hound of the Baskervilles ("Nonsense in the intellect draws evil after it." C.S. Lewis)
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To: kronos77
[ George W Bush meets Pope amid claims he might convert to Catholicism ]

If one converts to roman catholicism and in a moderate amount of time coverts to another club.. Did anything really happen at all?.. OR Can you be a member of multiple clubs at the same time?.. OR Can you be a roman catholic and an apostate at the same time?.. OR... {snip}..

14 posted on 06/15/2008 7:00:00 AM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole....)
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To: kronos77
This is not breaking news:

George W Bush meets Pope amid claims he might convert to Catholicism

15 posted on 06/15/2008 7:02:10 AM PDT by A.A. Cunningham
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To: Hound of the Baskervilles

Jeb’s wife is Catholic. Laura Bush is not.
But the UMC is such a liberal morla relativist snakepit, no surpise if GWB joins those of us who have bailed out seeking a Church led by a man with a true moral compass. Like Pope Benedict.


16 posted on 06/15/2008 7:04:11 AM PDT by silverleaf (Fasten your seat belts- it's going to be a BUMPY ride.)
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To: Hound of the Baskervilles

Jeb’s wife is Catholic. Laura Bush is not.
But the UMC is such a liberal moral relativist snakepit, no surpise if GWB joins those of us who have bailed out seeking a Church led by a man with a true moral compass. Like Pope Benedict.


17 posted on 06/15/2008 7:04:40 AM PDT by silverleaf (Fasten your seat belts- it's going to be a BUMPY ride.)
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To: kronos77

lol..ok I stand corrected..morons from anywhere can’t see that Bush was being polite to the pontiff..He is NOT going to convert to catholicism..


18 posted on 06/15/2008 7:05:07 AM PDT by BerniesFriend
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To: Hound of the Baskervilles
Jeb converted to Catholicism. So.......

JEB converted because of his wife, who being Latino, was most likely of that faith. President Bush and his immediate family have no reason to convert to Catholicism.

19 posted on 06/15/2008 7:09:29 AM PDT by madison10 (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: Menehune56

Elmer Gantry would have loved George Bush. So would P.T. Barnum. Ponzi would have bought him lunch. Baron Munchausen would have used him as an aide. Wrong-way Corrigan would have hired him as a co-pilot. The Flat-Earthers have nominated him for King. Mensa uses him as a standing joke. Mississippi Valley State rejected his entrance application. The Kennebunkport municipality won’t let him swim in the kiddie pool. etc. etc. etc.


20 posted on 06/15/2008 7:10:18 AM PDT by Melchior
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To: kronos77

As a Catholic, I would love it if Bush converted. He’s welcome with open arms.


21 posted on 06/15/2008 7:21:44 AM PDT by Pinkbell (Don't blame me, I supported Duncan Hunter.)
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To: kronos77

The liberal MSM just keeps inventing the news.....


22 posted on 06/15/2008 7:23:52 AM PDT by EagleUSA
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To: kronos77; All
In Washington, the White House called reports on Mr. Bush's plan for a conversion "baseless speculation."

"There's nothing to those rumors," spokesman Tony Fratto said Friday.

Father Richard John Neuhaus, a prominent Catholic priest who runs the monthly magazine First Things and has been consulted by Mr. Bush, also discounted the reports. "I'd be very surprised," he said.

Yet, Marco Politi, the respected Vatican correspondent of La Repubblica newspaper speculates otherwise. His reasoning: President Bush met with the Pope. The President's brother Jeb converted to Roman Catholicism as has former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Ergo, President Bush must be converting to Roman Catholicism.

This is the same kind of speculation that sends oil prices higher and higher.

23 posted on 06/15/2008 7:28:19 AM PDT by new cruelty (don't believe the hype)
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To: madison10
President Bush and his immediate family have no reason to convert to Catholicism.

Other than finding it silly that every time somebody has a slightly different interpretation of one sentence of the bible they form a new church over it, and raise millions to have gym's, swimming pools, and day care centers to steal members from their previous denomination.

But other than finding the above system that runs the protestant world silly, he has no reason.

24 posted on 06/15/2008 7:32:29 AM PDT by Ron Jeremy (sonic)
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To: kronos77
It'd be nice if he did, but this is VERY slim info to base such speculation on.

Since Mrs. Bush is a Methodist and President Bush converted from ECUSA to her church, chances are he's going nowhere if she isn't interested. It's an old saying that if you're courting a girl, you should agree with her father in politics and her mother in religion . . . .

But I can see him leaving the Methodists, because they have been very rude to him in D.C. -- denouncing him personally from the pulpit WHILE he was in the congregation. That's why he goes to the ECUSA (very high) church in D.C., but I don't see him reverting to the Piskies because they've all gone nuts.

25 posted on 06/15/2008 7:35:26 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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To: silverleaf
no surpise if GWB joins those of us who have bailed out seeking a Church led by a man with a true moral compass. Like Pope Benedict Jesus Christ.
26 posted on 06/15/2008 7:38:33 AM PDT by rabidralph
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To: Rome2000
At least that crazy Catholic Priest Pflager got his rear end handed to him by his Bishop.

Yeah, for two weeks, all expenses paid.

BFD.
27 posted on 06/15/2008 7:50:10 AM PDT by mkjessup (Obama-flakes! = Little suntanned Jimmy Carters with twice the empty rhetoric , from DNC cereals!)
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To: silverleaf

My uncle left the Methodist church to become a Baptist precisely because of the liberal Methodist leaders. If you know how a life long Methodist feels about Baptists, Bush becoming a Catholic is not that unlikely.


28 posted on 06/15/2008 7:50:30 AM PDT by dangerdoc (dangerdoc (not actually dangerous any more))
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To: kronos77

President Bush was in Iraq recently, yet I don’t recall him converting to Islam. The only media worse than ours is that in the UK.


29 posted on 06/15/2008 8:24:06 AM PDT by Mad_Tom_Rackham ("The land of the Free...Because of the Brave")
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To: kronos77

An article very similar was posted on Friday here.

I doubt very much GWB will convert to Catholicism. He is a deeply devout Christian, however, and has a natural affinitiy to the views and faith of Pope Benedict XVI. It’s a simple matter of two like-minded people of faith supporting one another in their worldly tasks.


30 posted on 06/15/2008 8:35:06 AM PDT by Gumdrop
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To: Rome2000

“At least that crazy Catholic Priest Pflager got his rear end handed to him by his Bishop.”

No, benching Pfleger for two weeks is hardy getting “his rear end handed to him”. It is more akin to having his pinky finger slapped.

If Cardinal George had inhibited Pfleger for several months or a year or two, then I’d say his got his “rear end handed to him”. Frankly, this would be an appropriate penalty for Fleger’s transgressions.


31 posted on 06/15/2008 9:19:32 AM PDT by miele man
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To: kronos77

I don’t know if it is tied to the calendar world wide... but this week was the first rite for my RCIA class to become Catholic.

I’m not sure if convert would be the proper language... I believe as a baptized Christian President Bush would be Candidate to be confirmed as a member of the Church.


32 posted on 06/15/2008 9:51:13 AM PDT by rwilson99 (Barrack Obama... more in common with Archie Bunker than Tiger Woods)
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To: kronos77; nickcarraway; sandyeggo; Lady In Blue; NYer; ELS; Pyro7480; livius; Catholicguy; ...
I like the title of that link:

Italians speculate Bush to convert

Catholic News Ping!

Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Catholic News Ping List.

33 posted on 06/15/2008 6:21:58 PM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: Salvation; NYer; SevenofNine

34 posted on 06/15/2008 6:48:40 PM PDT by monkapotamus
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To: Salvation; Petronski; NYer; netmilsmom
I know not when George W. Bush's road home to the Catholic Church began, and I do not know when it will end. But I do know, without a doubt, that Peggy Noonan captured a moment along that road in describing an important aspect of the 9/11 experience that we all should remember. From:

A Heart, a Cross, a Flag

We have: "He was last seen going up the stairs." Those are famous words here now. Usually we say it about the firemen. It's going to be a long time before we get used to the idea that 343 of them lost their lives that day. Or rather gave them.

Those 343--they were mostly tough Catholic men with soft hearts from the outer boroughs. They were Italians and Irish and Poles and Puerto Ricans, and they lined up for absolution, received a blessing and ran into the buildings lugging their gear. Their funerals were at Our Lady Queen of Peace, and St. Rose of Lima Church. And sometimes at the funerals they played an old '70s song whose title you'll never hear the same way again: "Stairway to Heaven."

The defining moment of his presidency is 9/11 and what he knows is that hundreds of men, mostly Catholic, willingly gave their lives to try and save others. That my friends is Catholic.

What I know, having served in the U.S. Army for over twenty years is that an inordinate number of our general officers are Catholic. That my friends is Catholic.

We serve others and care about others because Christ did. That my friends is Catholic.

When George W. Bush completes his journey home to the Catholic Church, he will be welcomed with open arms by Jesus Christ.

35 posted on 06/15/2008 6:55:17 PM PDT by big'ol_freeper ("Preach the Gospel always, and when necessary use words". ~ St. Francis of Assisi)
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To: kronos77
Oh, puh-leeze! The rumors that a given population will convert to the RC are only slightly less common than those that (fill in the blank) had a "deathbed conversion."

If it is true, than our President will be joining Jeb and Columba in the pews.

36 posted on 06/15/2008 6:57:33 PM PDT by Clemenza (No Comment)
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To: monkapotamus

That’s a lovely picture.


37 posted on 06/15/2008 7:00:37 PM PDT by fetal heart beats by 21st day (Defending human life is not a federalist issue. It is the business of all of humanity.)
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To: rabidralph

Evidently you do not understand that Pope Benedict is the vicar of Christ on earth.


38 posted on 06/15/2008 7:05:12 PM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: fetal heart beats by 21st day

39 posted on 06/15/2008 7:06:36 PM PDT by monkapotamus
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To: big'ol_freeper

Thank you for your beautiful post. I concur with your thoughts.


40 posted on 06/15/2008 7:08:25 PM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: monkapotamus

Thank you.

Can’t you just imagine how tempted Bush must have been, sitting in the Vatican Gardens, to just stay there?


41 posted on 06/15/2008 7:10:39 PM PDT by fetal heart beats by 21st day (Defending human life is not a federalist issue. It is the business of all of humanity.)
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To: big'ol_freeper

Well said, Big ol!


42 posted on 06/15/2008 7:34:25 PM PDT by SuziQ
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To: monkapotamus

MONK are you serious W going convet Cathoicim COOL I hope that true I know Jeb did because when he marry his wife Dora Bush


43 posted on 06/15/2008 7:55:37 PM PDT by SevenofNine ("We are Freepers, all your media belong to us, resistence is futile")
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To: kronos77
"Catholics have noted that during the contested election in 2000, Jeb Bush travelled to Mexico and prayed to the icon of Our Lady of Guadelupe. His victory was announced by the Supreme Court on December 12, the feast day of the Lady of Guadelupe."

I didn't know that. Wow!!!

I for one wold warmly welcome President Bush into the Caholic community. I am hoping and praying the rumors are true. It is heartwarming to see the President with Pope Benedict and equally encouraging to know they have a close relationship.

44 posted on 06/15/2008 7:55:43 PM PDT by TAdams8591
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To: monkapotamus

MONK are you serious W going convet Cathoicim COOL I hope that true I know Jeb did because when he marry his wife Dora Bush


45 posted on 06/15/2008 7:55:46 PM PDT by SevenofNine ("We are Freepers, all your media belong to us, resistence is futile")
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To: monkapotamus

OH PHOOEY OH NUTS

False alarm hey it be cool if Bush did

I don’t see that happening unless he really considering it


46 posted on 06/15/2008 7:57:58 PM PDT by SevenofNine ("We are Freepers, all your media belong to us, resistence is futile")
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To: big'ol_freeper

Thank you for this wonderful post.


47 posted on 06/15/2008 8:04:16 PM PDT by pgkdan (Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions - G.K. Chesterton)
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To: kronos77
Did any of you stop and think that he might have just been trying to be polite?

Like when I met Hillary Clinton and said I might become a sociopathic militant lesbian feminazi too! I was just being polite.

Then I said I recognized her, she's Monica Lewinski’s ex-boyfriend's wife.

The conversation went down hill from there.

48 posted on 06/15/2008 8:04:41 PM PDT by Grizzled Bear ("Does not play well with others.")
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To: kronos77; informavoracious; larose; RJR_fan; Prospero; Conservative Vermont Vet; ...
+

Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:

Add me / Remove me

Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of interest.

49 posted on 06/15/2008 10:14:35 PM PDT by narses (...the spirit of Trent is abroad once more.)
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To: kronos77

President Bush I doubt will convert to Catholic. I wonder where they get this information.


50 posted on 06/15/2008 10:52:41 PM PDT by napscoordinator
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