VATICAN: The child sex abuse scandals which have rocked the US Catholic Church featured prominently in 20 minutes of private talks between Pope John Paul II and President Bush in the Vatican yesterday.
The US President, who was in Italy for a Russia-NATO summit, was making his second visit to the Pope, having held talks with him in July at his summer residence in Castelgandolfo, south of Rome.
The Pope, whose health has been the subject of intense speculation in recent weeks, appeared relatively well as he stood at his desk in the pontifical library to receive Mr Bush, greeting him with a curt "Mr. President", to which the President replied: "Thank you, sir. Thank you so much for receiving me."
As the two men took their leave of one another at the end of the private audience, the Pope said: "God Bless America", adding: "I hope to be able to meet you again."
At a subsequent briefing, White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer confirmed that President Bush had indeed brought up the topic of the US church's paedophilia scandal.
Speaking to reporters prior to his audience with the Pope, the President had said that he would raise the matter because of his concern about the Catholic Church, which "is an incredibly important institution in our country".
Senior Papal spokesman Dr Joaquin Navarro-Valls confirmed that the two men had talked about the sex abuse scandal but stressed that their talks had also touched on matters related to the Middle East and yesterday's NATO summit in Rome.
"Apart from the political aspects of the Middle East crisis, they talked about the humanitarian dimensions of the dramatic situation in which both the Israeli and Palestinian people find themselves, as well as the difficult position of Christians in the Middle East. The Pope also expressed his solidarity with the American people in the wake of the events of September 11th last," said the Papal spokesman.
Dr Navarro-Valls added that the Pope had reassured President Bush of his "faith in the spiritual resources of American Catholics despite the difficulties of the moment".
The Pope summoned US cardinals to the Vatican last month for an unprecedented summit on the sex abuse issue. The US bishops are to meet in Dallas next month to formulate a policy on how to deal with clerical sex offenders.