Why are we welcoming him again?

George W. Bush left the White House today to welcome Pope Benedict XVI at Andrew’s Air Force Base. According to this article by Michael Abramovitz in the WP, it’s the first time he’s done so in seven years in office. No other foreign dignitary has received such an honor, including Gordon Brown, whose visit to the US this week has been rather overshadowed by that of the leader of the Catholic church.

In Washington DC this weekend, banners all down Wisconsin Avenue celebrated the Pope’s arrival. A lone protester proffered a sign, claiming that “The Catholic Church Protects Pedophiles,” although he’s almost certainly been moved on by now. The President is extending his warmest welcome to Pope Benedict, in the hope of reinforcing strong ties with the Catholic faith. After all, they have a lot of shared ideals.

Bush takes a distinctly Catholic stand on sex. Sex education, birth control, abortion, AIDS prevention, you name it. According to the 1968 Humanae Vitae by Pope Paul VI:

“We base Our words on the first principles of a human and Christian doctrine of marriage when We are obliged once more to declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun and, above all, all direct abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as lawful means of regulating the number of children. Equally to be condemned, as the magisterium of the Church has affirmed on many occasions, is direct sterilization, whether of the man or of the woman, whether permanent or temporary.

Similarly excluded is any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation—whether as an end or as a means.”

Sound familiar?

Bush can believe all he wants about the merits of abstinence-only sex education, but basically, it isn’t working. Statistics in March declared that 1 in 4 teenage girls has an STD. Among African-American women between the ages of 14 and 19, the figure is nearly 50 percent. Instead meeting with the Pope on the comfortable level of the moral high ground, maybe Bush could talk to some of these teenagers.