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.
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.
WAIT, BEFORE YOU GO…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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The "Saturday Night Live" Weekend Update correspondent made an appearance on KPFK radio's "Pocho Hour of Power" to comment on popes past and present.
Pope Benedict's resignation shouldn't have surprised us as much as it did. As an institutionalist who believes in the Roman Catholic Church as the carrier of truth in a sinful world, he would worry a great deal about the impact of his own infirmities on the institution's capacity to thrive.
Whatever messages Pope Benedict tried to convey during his tenure were "drowned out" by the child abuse scandal and other controversies that rocked the Vatican during his reign, John Hooper writes at The Guardian.
Pope Benedict XVI may have prayed for change in the Cuban political system during his stopover on the island nation on Tuesday, but he won't see any tangible results anytime soon, according to one high-profile member of President Raul Castro's administration.
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