Press Briefing by Dana Perino

Business Wire, April 15, 2008

WASHINGTON -- James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

12:32 P.M. EDT

MS. PERINO: Let me start off just with a couple of comments about the President welcoming Pope Benedict XVI to America today. Tomorrow in his remarks, the President will say to the Holy Father that millions of Americans have been praying for his visit. He will also say to the Holy Father that the nation he will visit is a nation of prayer that welcomes the faithful. He will tell him that the hearts of the American people are open to the Holy Father's message of hope. And he will hear from the President that America and the world need to hear his message that God is love, that human life is sacred, that we all must be guided by common moral law, and that we have responsibilities to care for our brothers and sisters in need at home and across the world.

A note just about the visit: It's a wonderful, historic visit. The President and the First Lady feel great respect, love and friendship for Pope Benedict. And the White House staff, across the board, we are all very excited. As you know, the arrival ceremony is tomorrow out on the South Lawn. We are expecting thousands of people, upwards of possibly 9,000 people. It will be one of the largest arrival ceremonies ever held at the White House. And the weather conditions are expected to be spectacular, so that will make it even more special, since this time of year can be dicey in that regard.

Every state visit and arrival requires a lot of planning. This is -- today's arrival culminates months of work from the White House staff team, and also officials at the Vatican. And we expect that they will have a very good meeting, and we're looking forward to their opening statements tomorrow.

Jennifer.

Q Thanks. Can you just offer a little insight as to why the President would sort of part with his own tradition of not going out to Andrews to greet leaders, and do so for a religious leader, but not having done it for political leaders?

MS. PERINO: Well, obviously, as I said, it's an historic and important visit. One of the things Anita McBride in the First Lady's office, who has been very involved in the planning of this -- she said that a lot of research went into the visit and that in researching other papal visits to the United States, found that it's customary for leaders to greet the Holy Father when he first arrives in the United States, wherever that point of origin is. And given that that is Andrews Air Force Base, that's one of the reasons we decided to go.

But the President and Mrs. Bush look forward to this being a different and unique opportunity for them to drive out today. And one of the reasons they're driving instead of taking Marine One is, because of the amount of people we're expecting on the South Lawn tomorrow, there's lots of preparations out on the South Lawn, and it was easier to drive than to try to go someplace else for a landing zone and takeoff.

Q And I just want to follow up on the remarks; you gave a little bit of a preview there. How substantive do you expect either the President or Pope Benedict to get in those remarks?

MS. PERINO: Well, I've only seen the President's remarks, and so I'll have to leave it to the Vatican to describe his. But I expect the President will go into some but not a lot of detail about areas where they have a shared commitment and shared values, such as human rights and individual dignity, their work together to combat extremist ideology, especially in the Muslim world that -- obviously, the Pope has been no stranger to criticism by extremists, as well, and so the President and the Pope have shared a desire to work together to combat terrorism. So I expect they will talk about that.

The President is also interested in how the Pope has been working to establish an interfaith dialogue, and that's something that the President welcomes, especially as we are confronting these issues of extremist ideology around the world.

I think they will talk about religious freedom. They will also probably touch on Africa and the shared commitments that they have for helping the human rights crisis there, helping combat and eradicate disease and hunger, amongst other issues there in Africa. And I also expect they will probably talk a little bit about Lebanon.

Ann.

Q How does the White House balance the different elements for an arrival ceremony? Is it a secular head of state arrival? Is it, in part, religious overtones, with the singing of "The Lord's Prayer"?

MS. PERINO: Well, this is a little bit different, in that the head of state is also the head of the Catholic Church that is visiting the White House. And so I think we've struck the right balance, and that it's perfectly appropriate for the White House to welcome the Pope and have one of the songs performed tomorrow by Kathleen Battle -- who we are very happy to have at the White House -- she'll be singing "The Lord's Prayer." And many people across America and across the world say that prayer in order to provide themselves comfort and confidence in getting their day started. And so we think it's perfectly appropriate.