Lest it be forgotten, Pope John Paul II, for all his social conservatism, was a very pragmatic and honest man when it came to world politics. For example, stories are now coming out detailing the Pope’s behind the scenes opposition to Bush’s Iraq war plans.

This story from the Denver Post quoting for Vatican envoy, Jim Nicholson, is very interesting.

“Nicholson met with Pope John Paul II on Sept. 13, 2001, at Castel Gandolfo, the pontiff’s summer palace outside Rome. During that summit, the pope decried the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as an attack not just on the United States but on humanity, Nicholson recalled.

“He went on to say humanity needed to take steps to get people to stop killing in the name of God,” Nicholson said. Those sentiments, Nicholson said, were backed up by the Holy See’s support for U.S. efforts to stamp out terrorism.

But John Paul II vociferously opposed a U.S. strike on Iraq, sending an emissary to Washington in the run-up to the war in a failed attempt to sway President Bush.

“There was a clear disagreement,” Nicholson said. “He was a man of peace, and he always hoped for the peace option. If he could keep war from breaking out, there’s always a chance that peace would break out. That was his position about Iraq; he made that clear to me. He also said that war is a defeat for humanity, that war is not always inevitable.”

So, in essence, the Pope actually held the exact same position as Howard Dean. He supported the war against Al Qaeda and terrorism, but was adamantly opposed to the Iraq invasion.

And the Pope’s opposition to the wear with Iraq was indeed adamant. As this March, 2003 report from Capital Hill Blue indicates:

“Pope John Paul II has a strong message for President George W. Bush: God is not on your side if you invade Iraq.

But the President told the pope’s envoy the leader of the world’s Catholics is wrong.

Pleading for peace, an emissary from Pope John Paul II questioned Bush Wednesday on whether he was doing all he could to avert what the envoy called an “unjust” war with Iraq.

Bush said removing Saddam Hussein would make the world more peaceful.

The president met with Cardinal Pio Laghi, a former Vatican ambassador to the United States and a Bush family friend, on Ash Wednesday, the start of the Christian Lenten season of penance and spiritual renewal leading up to Easter.

Bush told the envoy in a 40-minute meeting that “if it comes to the use of force, he believes it will make the world better,” said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, who attended the private meeting. “Removing the threat to the region will lead to a better, more peaceful world in which innocent Iraqis will have a better life.”

Laghi came bearing the pope’s message: A war would be a “defeat for humanity” and would be neither morally nor legally justified.

The Pope also questioned the President’s statements invoking God’s name as justification for the invasion.

“God is a neutral observer in the affairs of man,” the Pope said. “Man cannot march into war and assume God will be at his side.”

One might have dismissed the report at the time, as it was put together by a non-resputable source. But the essential confirmation of it by Jim Nicholson puts it in a whole new perspective.

It’s also confirmed by these post war comments from the Papal envoy mentioned above, Cardinal Laghi:

“The Italian cardinal sent by Pope John Paul II last year to try to dissuade President Bush from invading Iraq said Monday the president promised that the U.S. operation would be “quick.”

Cardinal Pio Laghi visited Bush at the White House on March 5, 2003, to relay the pope’s position that dialogue, not arms, should be used to resolve the crisis over Iraq, which the United States accused of harboring weapons of mass destruction.

“When I went to Washington as the pope’s envoy just before the outbreak of the war in Iraq, he (Bush) told me: `Don’t worry, your eminence. We’ll be quick and do well in Iraq,’” Laghi told Italian Catholic TV station Telepace, which was broadcasting the pontiff’s annual address to diplomats.

When the United States went to war in Iraq, Laghi called the attack on Baghdad “tragic and unacceptable.”

“Unfortunately, the facts have demonstrated afterward that things took a different course — not rapid and not favorable,” the prelate told Telepace. “Bush was wrong.”

Here is another account of the meeting, from CNN:

A Vatican envoy who met with President Bush Wednesday said he “clearly and forcefully” conveyed a message from Pope John Paul II that a war against Iraq would be a “disaster.”

“You might start, and you don’t know how to end it,” said Cardinal Pio Laghi said after his half-hour meeting at the White House. “It will be a war that will destroy human life. Those people that are suffering already in Iraq, they will be in a really bad situation.”

Laghi, at a joint press conference with Bush, later said that a premptive war with Iraq, without the express sanction of the United Nations was “illegal,” and “uinjust.”

So, Bush will be attending Pope John Paul II funeral, as he should. But how much do you want to bet that all of the common ideological positons between Bush and the Pope will be brought up during the funeral telecast and commentary by our whore media, and none of the important facts about the Pope’s vigorous disagreement with Bush over the Iraq war.

In fact, at least one commentator claimed in the Catholic New Times, that Pope John Paul II actually believed that Dubyah might be the antichrist! [Take that with a grain of salt, but you can see how a devoutly religious person might come to that conclusion.]

I’d say that the probability our whore media commentators will mention daylight between Bush and the Pope on any issue are about the same that your local highschool girls basketball team has in defeating the University of North Carolina men’s team.

So, we will get yet anoth Bush poll number booster, right after they dropped precipitously. Just like before 9/11. Or before the Iraq invasion. Or before the capture of Saddam Hussein. Or when Reagan died. Or when the Osama tape mysetriously surfaced just a week before the election. Or when the Iraqi elections took place.

Just whne we are starting to get traction against the guy, events seem to prop his ass back up. But, don’t get discouraged. He’s not going to be around after 2008. And the rest of the GOP doesn’t lead his charmed, something-always-comes-along-to-bail-his-ass-out, existence.