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Israeli President Moshe Katsav has accepted an invitation from Pope Benedict XVI to make the first official visit to the Vatican by an Israeli head of state, officials said Sunday.Katsav will visit Italy for about a week in mid-November, said Katsav's spokeswoman, Hagit Cohen. The Foreign Ministry said the visit was "unprecedented."Israel and the Vatican established diplomatic relations in the 1990s, and Pope John Paul II hosted Israeli prime ministers and other officials as part of his effort to build ties with the Jewish state.The presidency in Israel is a largely ceremonial office, but Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said...

Bush Brought a Gift for the Pope: The Alliance Between Catholics and Evangelicals It is an absolute novelty in the history of the United States, and has been consolidated with the present administration. The key role of Fr. Richard J. Neuhaus in the inner circle of the White House by Sandro Magister ROMA – The June 4 meeting in the Vatican between George W. Bush and John Paul II brought together noticeably the positions of the two sides: even in the matter of Iraq, over which there was a serious division a year ago. The speech given by the pope...

Bush's Vatican strategy By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist  |  June 15, 2004 BUMPER stickers saying ``Bishops for Bush'' may soon be coming. It seems that the president who admits few faults and confesses no shame but invokes God in policy decisions to a grating degree for many Americans pandered to the pope in his recent trip to the Vatican. The National Catholic Reporter, an independent newspaper, published an article that said Bush asked Vatican officials to help him in the American culture wars. The article, written by Rome correspondent John Allen, said ``During his June 4 visit, Bush asked...

<p>President Bush had a successful trip to Italy earlier this month, but no one in America would know it based on the news coverage. Headlines all focused on the same two themes: Pope John Paul II scolded the president about prison abuse in Iraq, and Italian mobs thronged the streets to protest Mr. Bush. Neither story accurately portrays what were positive meetings at the Vatican and with Italian government officials.</p>

During his June 4 visit, Bush asked the Vatican to push the American Catholic bishops to be more aggressive politically on family and life issues, especially a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. A Vatican official told NCR June 9 that in his meeting with Cardinal Angelo Sodano and other Vatican officials, Bush said, “Not all the American bishops are with me” on the cultural issues. The implication was that he hoped the Vatican would nudge them toward more explicit activism.Other sources in the meeting said that while they could not...

George Bush met June 4 in the Vatican with John Paul II, and rarely has a high-profile encounter between two leaders been subject to more widely varying interpretations. According to White House sources and Vatican spokesperson Joaquín Navarro-Valls, it was a cordial encounter that produced a meeting of the minds on Iraq, as well as appreciation for Bush’s stands on life and the family. According to some media outlets, on the other hand, it was a dramatic confrontation; the Manchester Guardian, for example, called it a “papal tongue-lashing.” The truth, as usual, probably lies somewhere in between. John Paul’s speech...

In his recent trip to Rome, President Bush asked a top Vatican official to push American bishops to speak out more about political issues, including same-sex marriage, according to a report in the National Catholic Reporter, an independent newspaper. In a column posted Friday evening on the paper's Web site, John L. Allen Jr., its correspondent in Rome and the dean of Vatican journalists, wrote that Mr. Bush had made the request in a June 4 meeting with Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state. Citing an unnamed Vatican official, Mr. Allen wrote: "Bush said, 'Not all the American...

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK On his recent trip to Rome, President Bush asked a top Vatican official to push American bishops to speak out more about political issues, including same-sex marriage, according to a report in the National Catholic Reporter, an independent newspaper. In a column posted Friday evening on the paper's Web site, John L. Allen Jr., its correspondent in Rome and the dean of Vatican journalists, wrote that Mr. Bush had made the request in a June 4 meeting with Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state. Citing an unnamed Vatican official, Mr. Allen wrote: "Bush said,...

Despite all the headlines claiming the Pope "upbraided" and "scolded" President Bush in the June 4 audience (and advance reports that Cdl. Pio Laghi predicted severe words), here is what the Pope REALLY said - from Vatican web site - UDIENZA AL PRESIDENTE DEGLI STATI UNITI DíAMERICA, S.E. IL SIGNOR GEORGE WALKER BUSH , 04.06.2004 and conferral of the "PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM" At 12 noon today, the Holy Father John Paul II received in Audience Mr. George Walker Bush, President of the United States of America, with his wife and staff. * DISCORSO DEL SANTO PADRE Mr. President, 1....

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 4, 2004 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II appealed to U.S. President George Bush for the return of Iraq to full sovereignty as soon as possible, with the participation of the international community, in particular the United Nations. During an audience in the Vatican today, the Pope also called for "new negotiations" for peace in the Holy Land, programs to put an end to the "intolerable conditions" of Africa, and greater cooperation for peace between the United States and Europe. The Holy Father expressed his appreciation of the Bush administration's commitment to the promotion "of moral values in American...

It is too much of a simplification to say Europe and America look at the problem of the resurgent Islamic Jihad in different ways. (Canada being more like Europe than America.) There are two radically different approaches — surrender, or fight — but both may be found on either side of the Atlantic. As President Bush again tours Europe — celebrating the 60th anniversary of the capture of Rome yesterday, and of the Normandy landings tomorrow — we are again reminded how much has changed. In Rome, Mr. Bush had an audience with Pope John Paul II. In exchange for...

NewsMax.com WiresFriday, June 4, 2004 Here is the text of President Bush presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. The text was provided by the White House. President Bush: Your Holiness, thank you very much for receiving Laura and me, and our delegation. I bring greetings from our country, where you are respected, admired and greatly loved.I also bring a message from my government that says to you, sir, we will work for human liberty and human dignity, in order to spread peace and compassion; that we appreciate the strong symbol of freedom...

Masked demonstrators hurl objects during clashes with Italian Police at Circo Massimo grounds at a protest against the visit by President Bush in Rome, Friday June 4, 2004. Bush, who met Pope John Paul II at the Vatican Friday, is in Italy to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Rome's liberation and will proceed to France Saturday.(AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito) A U.S. flag with a swastika is seen during a protest against a visit by President Bush (news - web sites) in Rome, Friday June 4, 2004. Bush, who met Pope John Paul II at the Vatican Friday, is in...

Today President Bush met with Pope John Paul II during their 15 minute closed door meeting and later a photo op at the Vatican today. He presented the Pope with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Later he met with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and laid a wreath at the mausoleum, at Rome's Fosse Ardeatine where 335 Italians were slaughtered by occupying Nazis on March 24, 1944. President Bush also met with Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi at the Quirinale Palace in Rome Italy ENJOY YOUR VIST TO SANITY ISLAND

Bush's nuclear "football" enters Vatican Fri 4 June, 2004 15:01 By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - While George W. Bush and the pope talked peace in the Vatican, a military aide held a bulky black attaché case containing the codes the U.S. president would need in order to launch a nuclear war. It is known as "the football". It has been all over the world and on Friday it entered the hallowed halls of the Vatican. It was never very far from the president. While he and the pope were speaking alone in the pontiff's private study, it was...

ROME (AP) - President Bush got a sharp dose of Europe's opposition to his Iraq policy Friday, quietly in the halls of the Vatican from Pope John Paul II and loudly in the streets of Rome from thousands of demonstrators. The ailing pontiff complained about recent "deplorable events," an apparent reference to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops. In the absence of a commitment to shared human values, "neither war nor terrorism will ever be overcome," he said, struggling to speak. However, the pope welcomed the recent establishment of an interim government and called for a speedy transfer...

Pope John Paul II admonished President Bush for the torture of Iraqi prisoners by US troops during a meeting in Vatican City today. The full text of the speech, and Mr Bush's response, is below.Mr President: "I offer a warm welcome to you and to Mrs Bush, and to the distinguished Delegation accompanying you. I also extend a cordial and affectionate greeting to all the people of the United States whom you represent. I thank you for wishing to meet with me again, in spite of the difficulties presented by your own many commitments during this present visit to Europe...

Amid tight security measures, thousands of demonstrators marched through Rome on Friday to protest the visit of President Bush to Italy and that country's participation in the war in Iraq. Protesters swarmed the streets of central Rome after Bush met with Pope John Paul II, one of the strongest critics of the war. Police estimated the number of demonstrators at 500,000.

June 4, 2004 -- PRESIDENT Bush meets today with Pope John Paul II in Rome. We can only imagine what they'll discuss — though one Vatican official thinks he knows. In a recent interview with an Italian paper, the voluble Cardinal Pio Laghi said he was sure that the pope would tell Bush what Laghi himself had said to the president last year: Stop the action in Iraq. Laghi referred to "the advice I gave him, which he decided not to heed. Now we see how wise it was." To help keep civilization from losing the War on Terror, I'd...