Pope Backs Plan for Iraq Sovereignty in Visit by Bush

Pope John Paul II, a stern critic of the Iraq war, on Friday endorsed President Bush’s goal of “a speedy return of Iraq’s sovereignty” and called on the United Nations to actively participate in that effort.

But even as Bush presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian award, the pope condemned as “deplorable” the abuses of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

Across the Tiber River, thousands of antiwar demonstrators marched through the streets to protest Bush’s presence and his foreign policy.

The president’s meeting with the pope came on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Rome by Allied troops. Today, Bush travels to Paris to meet with French President Jacques Chirac, another opponent of the Iraq war. On Sunday, the two men will join other world leaders in Normandy to commemorate the 60th anniversary of D-day.

In a recent interview with Paris Match magazine, Bush said he bore no ill will toward Chirac, whom he characterized as a friend.

But Bush’s true feelings toward the French president remained open to question. Asked whether Chirac might soon receive an invitation to the president’s ranch in Texas, Bush replied in the interview: “If he wants to come and see some cows, he’s welcome to come out there and see some cows.”

Bush told the magazine in the May 28 interview -- whose transcript was released by the White House on Friday -- that his differences with Chirac were based on substantive disagreements, which are now history.

“I’ve never been angry at the French. France has been a longtime ally, and I -- look, I made a difficult decision and not everybody agreed with it. But I understand that,” Bush said. “And now is the time to work together to promote the values we believe in, which is human rights and human dignity and rule of law and freedom and justice.”

Asked “what went wrong” with relations between the U.S. and France, Bush said, “You need to talk to the French leadership.”

Also Friday, Bush visited Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and placed a wreath at Fosse Ardeatine, a tomb that honors 335 Italians executed by Adolf Hitler’s troops in retaliation for a deadly attack on German soldiers here. The president and First Lady Laura Bush then dined with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his wife.

White House officials acknowledged that Bush had rearranged his schedule to meet with the pope. But a senior administration official traveling with Bush denied that the president was seeking to curry favor with Catholic voters back home.

Bush’s expected opponent in November is Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), a Roman Catholic.

“Well, the Holy Father is not a political figure,” the senior administration official said. “And the president would never seek to make him into one.” The official added that Bush found especially appealing the pope’s history of fighting tyranny in his native Poland.

At the Vatican, Bush’s private meeting with the pope lasted about 15 minutes. The media were allowed in briefly to hear their public remarks.

The pope, who is 84 and has Parkinson’s disease, read from a prepared text, speaking in halting English. His hands shook, and he often inhaled deeply between words.

John Paul paid tribute to the American soldiers who liberated Europe, but he focused his remarks on “the grave unrest in the Middle East and in the Holy Land.” He also welcomed the recent appointment of an interim government in Iraq as “an encouraging step toward” sovereignty for that nation.

“May a similar hope for peace also be rekindled in the Holy Land and lead to new negotiations, dictated by a sincere and determined commitment to dialogue, between the government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority,” the pontiff said.

He delivered his remarks on the prison scandal immediately after mentioning the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. Though the pope did not bring up the name of the prison, there was little doubt about his reference.

“In the past few weeks, other deplorable events have come to light which have troubled the civic and religious conscience of all, and made more difficult a serene and resolute commitment to shared human values,” he said. “In the absence of such a commitment, neither war nor terrorism will ever be overcome.”

The pope also called for “a fuller and deeper understanding” between Europe and the U.S., saying it would play “a decisive role” in resolving “the great problems” of the day.

John Paul spoke for more than 20 minutes, and Bush spoke for only two, promising to “work for human liberty and human dignity, in order to spread peace and compassion.”

After the session, the White House communications director, Dan Bartlett, said the president did not disagree with anything the pope had said. The Vatican spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, declined to elaborate on the pope’s remarks.

In Rome, thousands of police officers patrolled the city center as demonstrators convened near the Forum.

During the morning, small groups of protesters set tires on fire in an attempt to block some roads. But the march was largely peaceful. Afterward, several major streets used by the demonstrators were strewn with debris while fresh anti-Bush graffiti and posters were everywhere.

“We are marching here to express our opposition to the disagreeable visit of Bush. We are demonstrating against his illegitimate war in Iraq,” said Patrizia Sentinelli, a member of the Refounded Communist Party. “He comes to our city trying to look like the liberator, trying to pretend that the liberators who liberated Italy 60 years ago are the same who, in his opinion, are liberating Iraq. He wants to rewrite history.”

Among the marchers was Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, a former minister of agriculture who heads the Green Parliamentary Group. “We are against preventive war, because it’s simply craziness. Italy should get into line with the other major European countries like Germany, France and now Spain,” he said. “It’s clear that apart from Great Britain, Europe’s position is that this war is wrong, we have to end this occupation.”

But Berlusconi claimed the last word. As he waited for the president and Mrs. Bush to arrive for dinner, the Italian prime minister pronounced the demonstration “a flop.”

In Rome, the White House announced Friday night that Iraq’s new interim president, Ghazi Ajil Yawer, would attend the Group of 8 summit in Sea Island, Ga., next week.

Maria De Cristofaro of The Times’ Rome Bureau contributed to this report.