Bush and Benedict: First Meeting
The Pope's chief concern? The survival of the Christian communities of the Middle EastInside the Vatican
June 10, 2007
By Andrea Kirk Assaf
George W. Bush is used to taking center stage, regularly passing from meeting to meeting at a hectic pace to carry out an ambitious agenda.
But after a flurry of intense meetings last week with the leaders of the world's most powerful nations at the G8 meeting in Germany, which Bush hailed as a success, he found himself slowed to a snail's pace yesterday morning, Saturday, June 9, during a solemn procession to meet the greatest spiritual leader on earth.
Led by two rows of finely-dressed noblemen who assist at papal events, Bush followed in the footsteps of countless other political leaders who, over nearly two millennia, have experienced the gravitas and grandeur of the Holy See on the approach through the Vatican to meet the successor of St. Peter.
In centuries past, monarchs would ride up to the papal palace in their carriages between Bernini's immense colonnades, feeling the muscular squeeze of the Pope's temporal and spiritual authority upon them.
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posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 7:58 AM
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