Clueless Meets Heartless
Bush, Pope Discuss War in Iraq
By JENNIFER LOVEN
The Associated Press
Saturday, June 9, 2007; 10:26 AM
ROME -- President Bush said Saturday that and he and Pope Benedict XVI discussed the pontiff's deep worries that Christians in Iraq would not be embraced by the Muslim majority."We didn't talk about just war," Bush said in a news conference with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi during a swing through Europe.
"He was concerned that the society that was evolving would not tolerate the Christian religion. ... He's worrisome about the Christians inside Iraq being mistreated by the Muslim majority."
Bush met with the prime minister several hours after seeing the pope. The two men, meeting each other for the first time, appeared intent to look beyond their differences in Iraq. The pope, in his Easter message, had denounced the "continual slaughter" in Iraq and said that "nothing positive" is happening.
Bush said his meeting with the pope, in which the president stressed his record in fighting AIDS and supporting other humanitarian causes, was a "moving experience."
"I was talking to a very smart, loving man," Bush said.
Gee, Bushie, did you ask the Pope about how he is fighting condom distribution in Africa?