Bush in the Vatican
11.06.2007
USA president George Bush met Pope Benedict XVI for the first time on an official Vatican visit.
Both had a half-hour meeting.
First Lady Laura Bush joined the president and the pope, along with an entourage including Francis Rooney, American ambassador to the Holy See.
Meeting Benedict XVI was a presidential first for George W. Bush. Now the United States is waiting to for a visit by the Pope.
Vatican (8) -- Analyses -- 2007
About the meeting
11.06.2007
The Pope brought up the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the situation in Iraq which the Vatican called “worrying” and the plight of Christians in the Middle East.
“The crucial problem is the attempt to put Christian communities in a ghetto, something which we must vigorously oppose,” Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, explained. “Historically, in countries in the Middle East such as Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, Christians and Muslims have lived together peacefully in the same land.”
George Bush presented the Pope with a wooden walking stick, carved with the ten commandments. The stick was made by a man from Dallas, Texas, who was once homeless. The media reported Bush owns an identical one.
Pope Benedict XVI reciprocated with a gold medallion and an old lithograph of St. Peter’s Square.
Bulgarian