U.S. president meets Pope in the Vatican

(June 9, 2007) U.S. President George W. Bush met Pope Benedict XVI for the first time on Saturday in the Vatican and reviewed the major political, moral and religious issues of the world today. In a brief statement after the meeting, Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi saying, “On the question of the Middle East, particular attention was given to the Israeli-Palestinian question, to Lebanon, to the worrying situation in Iraq, and to the critical conditions being experienced by the Christian communities.” “On the part of the Holy See,” Fr. Lombardi said, “hope was once again expressed in a ‘regional’ and ‘negotiated’ solution to the conflicts and crises afflicting the region.” The Pope and the US president also discussed “the question of Africa and its development, also with reference to Darfur; and there was an exchange of opinions on Latin America.
Fr. Lombardi said contemporary moral and religious issues were also examined - among them those concerning human rights and religious freedom, the defence and promotion of life, marriage and the family, the education of the young and sustainable development.
After the meeting, president Bush met Vatican Secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti. Bush arrived in Rome after a crucial meeting of the heads of the Group of 8 most industrialized nations of the world, or G8, who had gathered in Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamn, Germany, June 6-8.
Bush shook hands, posed for photos and shared a few laughs with the pope before sitting down with him at a small desk in the Pope’s private library. The pope asked the president about his meetings with leaders of other industrialized nations in Germany and then changed the topic to international aid. “I've got a very strong AIDS initiative,” Bush said. The president promised the Pope he would work to get Congress to double the current U.S. commitment for combatting AIDS in Africa to $30 billion over the next five years. The Pope and Bush talked for about 35 minutes in the Pontiff's private study in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace to the backdrop of tight security in Rome for fear of violent anti-US demonstrations. This was the first meeting between Bush and Benedict XVI since the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005, when the president and first lady Laura Bush met Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. The Holy Father received Laura Bush in an audience in Feb. 2006.
Last Wednesday, as the G8 summit got underway in Germany, Pope Benedict appealed to the G8 leaders not to retreat from their promises to make a substantial increase in development aid in favour of the most needy populations, especially those of the African continent. He said it was important that the world's rich nations do not lose sight of the so-called millennium development goals which include halving extreme poverty, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education by 2015. He had earlier written to German chancellor, Angela Merkel, on similar lines.