Bill Clinton On Pope’s Legacy

The former president has succumbed to the temptation to go in for snipish remarks regarding the late holy father, commenting to the press that John Paul II “centralized authority in the papacy again and enforced a very conservative theological doctrine. There will be debates about that. The number of Catholics increased by 250 million on his watch. But the numbers of priests didn’t. He’s like all of us – he may have a mixed legacy.”

LESS.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

31 thoughts on “Bill Clinton On Pope’s Legacy”

  1. He’s like all of us – he may have a mixed legacy.

    Riight. John Paul II and Bill Clinton. Two men with mixed legacies. I guess that’s true, in the sense that A Man for All Seasons and Showgirls are both human and therefore imperfect films.

  2. Several comments come to mind. But… most of them would earn me an quick IP ban from Jimmy.
    Let’s just say that whenever I get disgruntled with President George W. Bush, all I have to is look back at this guy to remember how much things have improved…

  3. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050406/D89A4IV80.html
    **He [Clinton] said he had met “two great popes” in his lifetime, John Paul II and John XXIII. Clinton said he recognized that John Paul “may have had a mixed legacy,” but he called him a man with a great feel for human dignity.**
    How is that possible? John XXIII died in 1963, when Bill Clinton was 17 years old. John XXIII never came to the United States. Bill Clinton never travelled to the Vatican as a teenager. Maybe he meant Paul VI. But he was Pope from 1963 to 1978. How would Bill Clinton have met him, I wonder? Why would the Pope be meeting with a man elected Arkansas Attorney General in 1976? It may be possible he saw Paul VI speak somewhere. He did travel to the U.S. in 1965, when Clinton would have been 19. I don’t know, maybe in his one month of being Pope, John Paul I really needed to meet the Democratic nominee for Governor of Arkansas, and somehow in 2005, Clinton thinks that was John XXIII.

  4. Clinton also went to college in England and probably did some knocking around Euroland. He came back with a lot of funny Euroist ideas, certainly. As a teller of tall tales, he may have parlayed his being in the crowd at a papal audience into a “meeting” with the pope.

  5. Jimmy,
    That’s possible. But no way it was John XXIII. I could be wrong but I don’t think Clinton was in Europe during his teenage years.

  6. Maybe he met John XXIII after one of those black churches was burned in Arkansas when he was a child . . .

  7. I hope Billy Jeff at least behaves himself at the funeral tomorrow. I have this mental image of him handshaking and backslapping his way up the center aisle at St. Peter’s…

  8. Heh, Bill Clinton is one to talk about mixed legacies…at least, the Pope had no interns.
    Now, if it was Jimmy Carter who said that, somebody ought to shoot him.

  9. Folks, this is just another example of the Narcissist Extraordinaire using a historical event to draw attention to himself.

  10. I received a few tapes for Lent from Presentation Ministries by the terrific Father Al Lauer. On the flipside of a tape on fasting, Father Al gives us Mission Impossible, and that is to pray for and intercede for a big figure, preferably a big sinner. I prayed about this thinking it was a pretty good idea and of course Bill’s name came to mind…… I guess that’s why Father Al called it Mission Impossible.
    I totally agree with Greg, of course Bill would try to compare himself with the Pope. Only his most sycophantic idiotic followers would buy this.
    Anybody want to help me in this Mission Impossible, send me an email.

  11. Slightly OT . . . I just saw Pres Bush & Laura arriving at the Vatican for viewing of John Paul II. May I just say how classy a woman Mrs Bush is, please? She was wearing a veil! I’m really very touched by this gesture. And the look on her face: genuine emotion. My respect for these 2, as fellow Christians, continues to grow.
    And, slightly back OT . . . I’m with you Paul.

  12. Perhaps the former President is still feeling chastised after his meeting with the Holy Father in, I think 1999.
    Any body else remember the revelation from one of the Pope’s personal attendants: Bill Clinton wouldn’t look him in the eye? I don’t think I dreamed that…

  16. Bill Clinton presented himself to the mourning cardinals with elegance and a very high class type
    bow and greeting. Howdy Doody Bush looked like his regular arrogant overbearing self.

  17. Bill Clinton presented himself to the mourning cardinals with elegance and a very high class type
    bow and greeting. Howdy Doody Bush looked like his regular arrogant overbearing self.

  18. Bill Clinton presented himself to the mourning cardinals with elegance and a very high class type
    bow and greeting. Howdy Doody Bush looked like his regular arrogant overbearing self.

  20. Let’s just say that whenever I get disgruntled with President George W. Bush, all I have to is look back at this guy to remember how much things have improved…

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