with a small reproduction of the Orthodox Madonna and Child similar to this:
Posted on 04/15/2008 8:07:25 AM PDT by NYer
Daniel Burke at the Washington Post thinks that President Bush might be pulling a Tony Blair. Burke tells of the Catholic based culture that rules the west wing and some other lingering suspicions.
Shortly after Pope Benedict XVI's election in 2005, President Bush met with a small circle of advisers in the Oval Office. As some mentioned their own religious backgrounds, the president remarked that he had read one of the new pontiff's books about faith and culture in Western Europe.While this concept of a Catholic run White House may be humorous to some, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus says that it is not so far fetched.
Save for one other soul, Bush was the only non-Catholic in the room. But his interest in the pope's writings was no surprise to those around him. As the White House prepares to welcome Benedict on Tuesday, many in Bush's inner circle expect the pontiff to find a kindred spirit in the president. Because if Bill Clinton can be called America's first black president, some say, then George W. Bush could well be the nation's first Catholic president.
***
"I don't think there's any question about it," says Rick Santorum, former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and a devout Catholic, who was the first to give Bush the "Catholic president" label. "He's certainly much more Catholic than Kennedy."
Bush has also placed Catholics in prominent roles in the federal government and relied on Catholic tradition to make a public case for everything from his faith-based initiative to antiabortion legislation. He has wedded Catholic intellectualism with evangelical political savvy to forge a powerful electoral coalition.Finally, Burke hints that some close to the President might not be suprised if he pulled a Tony Blair one day by converting after leaving office.
"There is an awareness in the White House that the rich Catholic intellectual tradition is a resource for making the links between Christian faith, religiously grounded moral judgments and public policy," says Richard John Neuhaus, a Catholic priest and editor of the journal First Things who has tutored Bush in the church's social doctrines for nearly a decade.
Moreover, people close to Bush say that he has professed a not-so-secret admiration for the church's discipline and is personally attracted to the breadth and unity of its teachings. A New York priest who has befriended the president said that Bush respects the way Catholicism starts at the foundation -- with the notion that the papacy is willed by God and that the pope is Peter's successor. "I think what fascinates him about Catholicism is its historical plausibility," says this priest. "He does appreciate the systematic theology of the church, its intellectual cogency and stability." The priest also says that Bush "is not unaware of how evangelicalism -- by comparison with Catholicism -- may seem more limited both theologically and historically."Color me skeptical, but I don't think so.
Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, another evangelical with an affinity for Catholic teaching, says that the key to understanding Bush's domestic policy is to view it through the lens of Rome. Others go a step further.
Paul Weyrich, an architect of the religious right, detects in Bush shades of former British prime minister Tony Blair, who converted to Catholicism last year. "I think he is a secret believer," Weyrich says of Bush. Similarly, John DiIulio, Bush's first director of faith-based initiatives, has called the president a "closet Catholic." And he was only half-kidding.
Bush has always shown great respect for conservative religious leaders, particularly the Rev’d Dr. Billy Graham and Pope John Paul II. Pope Benedict XVI would be no different. This stems from Bush’s stong personal relationship with the Risen Lord and his strong understanding of good vs evil.
Isn’t the “secret” Jesuit/Knights of Malta(they’re the same thing) oath is banned from the religion forum for being thoroughly debunked?
Yeah, RR’s father was Catholic, his mother, a Protestant, raised him same. His brother Moon was raised Catholic.
There are churches which celebrate services in Aramaic—the language of Christ.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2000125/posts?page=3#3
EWTN - World Over Live - 4/11/08 - Raymond Arroyo Interviews President Bush (excerpts here)
Friday, April 11, 2008 1:05:26 PM · 3 of 9
Notwithstanding to NYer
W seems to be Catholic at his core. Certainly moreso than Tony Blair.
Perhaps W will have announce his intellectual conversion once he leaves office.
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awesome post, had me chuckling along....
man, have i heard all those over and over and over...
I have no knowledge of that. SO if that oath is fake, show me the real one.
im not surprised about those and their thoughts of icons and statues, but their continual lies, misinformation and downright ignorance over the true meaning....and the strawmen they build with that ‘knowledge’....
“The Knights in the White House I got from my K of C State Deputy. He said 30 Knights (without swords) have been training for 2 months in preparation for the event. It was President Bush who made the request. EWTN will be carrying the event.”
Wonderful.
Did I “offend” you and create an “environment of fear”? :)
Oh gosh how could I have left that one out.
WE HAVE A WINNER!!!
This is the single most offensive post I have ever read on Free Republic.
LOL!
You just about covered it, but you left out one thing:
The Knights of Columbus put out contracts on people who give them trouble.
(I actually had a protestant man tell me one time the Knights were trying to kill him!)
Andy are you a K of C? I’d like to find an official copy of your oath. Can you provide it here?
ROFL!! STOP! I'm choking on my salad.
Secret oaths ping.
Uh-oh! Did I reveal one from 4th Degree Knights of Columbus secret list? They’ll never let me wash dishes at a fish fry again!
yeah your remarks are real sidesplitters. insulting a fellow freeper’s religion is about as low as you can get. i sincerely cannot fathom why you get off on it so, and how you think it is something God would condone.
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