President Bush, deeply unpopular here and met by boisterous protests, sought to impress Pope Benedict XVI and the Italian public on Saturday with his humanitarian record and downplayed differences with the Vatican over Iraq.
\nIn his meeting with Bush, the Vatican said the pope raised “the worrisome situation in Iraq.”<\/p>\n
“He was concerned that the society that was evolving would not tolerate the Christian religion,” Bush explained at a news conference with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi during the president’s swing through Europe.<\/p>\n
“He’s worrisome about the Christians inside Iraq being mistreated by the Muslim majority.”<\/p>\n
Bush met with the prime minister several hours after his first sit- down with Benedict. Bush and Benedict appeared intent to look beyond their differences in Iraq.<\/p>\n
The war was vigorously opposed by the late Pope John Paul II, and Benedict, in his Easter message, denounced the “continual slaughter” in Iraq and said that “nothing positive” is happening.”<\/p>\n
Bush said he assured the pope\u201d\u201dwhom he described as “very smart, loving man”\u201d\u201dthat the United States was working hard to ensure that the Iraqi people live up to their constitution in treating Christians fairly.<\/p>\n