Will President George W. Bush convert to Catholicism?

Continuing in the vein of combining religion and politics, it is worth taking another look at George W. Bush and comparing him with politicians like Tony Blair. When Tony Blair left behind him the world of New Labour national politics to embrace a more international role, he wanted a spiritual vision that was more universal in its tone as well, more catholic with a small 'c' as well as with a capital 'C'. If I am being cynical, something to complient his new political ambitions. He is banking, I think, on being able to use his new found membership of the Catholic church to be able to position himself as an active participant of interfaith/multi-cultural debates that are present in many parts of the world today; his teaching position on globalisation and religion at Yale is one case in point, as is the interfaith foundation that he has set and which bears his name. He has been accused of fluffy thinking, though, so that we never know if his gestures are simply just that, gestures filled with soundbite thinking. A charge leveled against him for much of the New Labour project, the consequences of which Gordon Brown is trying to iron out today.

And so to George W. Bush. Does he yearn for a post-oval office international role similar to that of his friend in faith, Tony Blair? According to reports in the broadsheets, it would seem that GWB is on the verge of plunging towards a new conversion. The Independent 14.6.08 reads 'Bush "may convert to Catholicism". The Pope has broken with official protocol in his recent meeting with Mr Bush, being the first head of state to be greeted outside the Pope's private study. The born-again Christian president has also had more papal audiences than any other US president.

According to the FT 14.6.08

"Asked then by a Catholic interviewer what he saw when he looked into the pope's eyes, Mr Bush, a Methodist, answered simply: "God".

"Marcello Pera, an Italian philosopher and senator who co-wrote a book with the German pope when he was still a cardinal, says the two men have a deep and special relationship founded primarily, on a shared belief that religion must play a central role in politics and in shaping public opinion - more than their conservative views on issues such as abortion, gay marriage and stem cell research (which do not extend to agreement on captial punishment). Although the US separates church and state, there is no such wall between religion and politics, Mr Pera said. "This is a part of US history. The US has a sense of [Christian] mission. Europe is more secularised...Pope Benedict likes the American model more. What is clear is that their relationship is not personal, it is conceptual."

"Italian Catholic commentators yesterday confidently predicted Mr Bushes conversion at the end of his term in office - following in the footsteps of his brother Jeb, whose Mexican wife is Catholic, and Tony Blair, the former UK prime minister also married to a Catholic. But sources close to the Vatican saw few tell-tale signs, noting that the two men did not pray together on this occasion."

As regards a secularised Europe and a religious political culture in the US, it is also worth noting that Pope John Paul II reacted quite strongly, as I understand it, to the spread of Liberation Theology in South America, perceiving it to be under too much influence from Marxist thought. It may, however, be that this "option for the poor" approach to Catholicism in South America still has some wind in its sail given that the continued popularity of more left of centre politics holds sway. The Vatican's focus upon the US would be an interesting development because, as far as I know, the post WWII reconstruction of Europe had previously been perceived as of greater importance. What would a more Catholic America mean for global politics? Would it be used as a bridge to connect with Europe or even as a mechanism to leverage Europe out of its secularised frame of thinking? And of course what would it mean for the rest of the world, a world where many outside of the US have had the thought 'what if Al Gore had been sworn in'? Fundamental to the difference between the US and Europe, though, I believe, is that Europe has experienced two world wars on its' own soil between its' own citizens. This experience, adding to the experience of the Reformation in Europe's battle between Protestants and Catholics, will mean that secularism not only has firm European roots but that it has something to teach us. North America's civil war did not create so much destruction as to undermine religious ideology as a force for the social good but then maybe it was lucky enough to happen when weaponry was still sufficiently primative. What would a more idealistic politico-religious North American culture make of Catholic universalism? Will George W. Bush follow in the footsteps of Tony Blair? Is it no longer such an obstacle for organised religion if Church and State are kept separate?