{"id":517,"date":"2008-04-14T18:16:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-14T18:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godometer\/2008\/04\/obama-first-to-welcome-pope.html"},"modified":"2008-04-14T18:16:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-14T18:16:00","slug":"obama-first-to-welcome-pope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2008\/04\/obama-first-to-welcome-pope.html","title":{"rendered":"Obama First to Welcome Pope"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"pope.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/211\/import\/pope.jpg\" width=\"150\" \/>Barack Obama was the first presidential candidate to issue a statement welcoming Pope Benedict XVI to the United States ahead of his arrival tomorrow:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>On behalf of our family, Michelle and I want to extend our warmest welcome to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI as he arrives for his historic apostolic journey to the United States.  As committed Christians, we join millions of Americans \u2013 Catholics and members of all faith communities \u2013 in offering our prayers for the success of the Holy Father\u2019s visit.<br \/>\nAt a time when American families face rising costs at home and a range of worries abroad, the theme of Pope Benedict\u2019s journey, \u201cChrist Our Hope,\u201d offers comfort and grace as well as a challenge to all faith communities to put our faith into action for the common good.  It will not only be Catholics who are listening to the Holy Father\u2019s message of hope and peace; all Americans will be listening with open hearts and minds.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Obama <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godometer\/2008\/04\/the-authenticity-threat-to-oba.html\">may have fallen to a &#8220;6&#8221;<\/a> with his seemingly derisive remark about small town Americans clinging to their faith, but he sure bounces back quick&#8211;unlike a certain Republican nominee for president who God-o-Meter has been tracking.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n8<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Barack Obama was the first presidential candidate to issue a statement welcoming Pope Benedict XVI to the United States ahead of his arrival tomorrow: On behalf of our family, Michelle and I want to extend our warmest welcome to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI as he arrives for his historic apostolic journey to the United&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-barack-obama"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - 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