Pope hits Iraq violence, immigration and sex scandal

Pope Benedict XVI yesterday urged President Bush to do more to protect Christians from violence in Iraq and to promote humane solutions to the problem of illegal immigration and then chided America’s Catholic bishops for their bad handling of the sexual abuse crisis.

He also was sharply critical of American culture, saying its strongly individualist streak tempts Catholics “to pick and choose” among church teachings. Although at the White House, Benedict praised U.S. political arrangements in separating church and state without driving religion from society, as he says has happened in Europe, he last night warned the church’s U.S. leaders that the American way has its own downside.

The private midday meeting in the Oval Office between the pontiff and the president also involved discussions of the Israel-Palestinian peace process at length, but little else was made public about the meeting.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said that the two men discussed the Iraq war, but that the conversation was mostly about protecting Christians from violence. The White House said the topic of the Iraq war was raised by Mr. Bush, not the pope.

Benedict has been critical of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, but Mrs. Perino said she was “reluctant to get any more detail … because [the two leaders] had an understanding that it would be private.”

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