Pope Disses Rice

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may be persona non grata at the Vatican.  When Rice swung through Italy in August, she gave notice ahead of time about her hopes to meet with Pope Benedict XVI, but the pontiff’s camp politely rebuffed her request, explaining that he was on holiday.

AFP via Breitbart.com:

Rice “made it known to the Vatican that she absolutely had to meet the pope” to boost her diplomatic “credit” ahead of a trip to the Middle East, the Corriere della Sera daily reported without citing its sources.

She was hoping to meet the pontiff at his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo at the beginning of August, it said.

“The pope is on holiday,” was the official response, the paper said.

It said the reply “illustrated the divergence of view” between the Vatican and the White House about the “initiatives of the Bush administration in the Middle East.”

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boston.com

No grazie:  The Vatican’s polite rejection of Rice’s request to visit the Pope in Italy may reflect his opinions about the Bush administration’s Mideast policy.