JFK Grassy Knoll Shooter James Files with Pamela Ray Interview with History: The JFK Assassination

George Bush with Cardinal Egan and former Governor of the State of New York Hugh L. Carey, Cardinal Egan.

Excerpt from vaticanassassins.org: The power of the Archbishop of New York has not diminished but rather grown.

Today, the man who wields the power of Cardinal Spellman from the Powerhouse in New York - St. Patrick's Cathedral across the street from Rockefeller Center and continues to suppress the truth about the assassination of President Kennedy by virtue of his Oath as a Cardinal, is the arch-conspirator, traitor to his American countrymen and master of the infamous, Jesuit-trained agitator, high-level Freemason and CFR member, former President Bill Clinton, and now master of Skull and Bones member, President George W. Bush, whose father, George H. W. Bush, is also a high-level Freemason, a former Director of both the CFR and CIA, as well as a participant in the Kennedy Assassination.

Description: The key person in the formation of the Club Bilderberg has been Joseph Retinger. The plan of the British intelligence was using Joseph Rettinger, one of the founders of the European Movement in organizing the Club Bilderberg as the real power in the shadows behind the American and European governments.

As Coleman continues this segment of detailing the Committee of 300 structure, he moves on to Joseph Rettinger, "Perhaps the most important member of the Bilderbergers, a foreign policy body 52 of the Committee (of 300)… Rettinger was a well-trained Jesuit priest and a 33rd Degree Freemason." pp. 51-52 Source

President Barack Obama delivers remarks on the economy at Georgetown University, where officials were asked to cover up Greek letters symbolizing Jesus. (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press)

President Barack Obama made an interesting comment on economics during his April 14 speech at Georgetown University. "We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand," he said. "We must build our house upon a rock."

I doubt anyone would accuse him of plagiarizing here, but what he is paraphrasing came from Jesus' parable. The man who built the house on sand paid the price. The winds took down the house. The man who built on stone enjoyed a house that withstood the storm.

It is quite appropriate that the parable was quoted at this Catholic university founded by Jesuits. Crucifixes, statues of Mary and other religious items are everywhere, revealing the rich tradition here.

Oddly, the president's advance team insisted that all religious symbols be covered in the place in which he was speaking. Incredibly, Georgetown officials complied. At the request of the White House, university officials placed a cover over the letters IHS -- the Greek abbreviation for the name of Jesus -- during the president's recent talk there.
http://www.detnews.com/article/20090421/OPINION03/904210318/Catholic+leaders+shouldn+t+cover+up+religious+identity

The God of the universe is a triune being composed of 3 divine persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Never in the Bible does God ever call Himself by the name Allah.

God is called JEHOVAH, Eloihim, El Shadai, Adonai, Emmanuel, etc., etc., but never is HE referred to by the name of ALLAH....The Hebrew and Arabic languages come from the same common root.


Millions worship a deadly demon named Allah, never realizing that their religion was started by the Vatican,

Islam is the Western leg of the Roman Empire as foretold by Daniel the Prophet.
http://www.reformation.org/vatican-and-islam.html



THE PROPHET
By Alberto Rivera
http://www.spirituallysmart.com/the_prophet.html

  CHAPTER 8 PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY New evidence has recently been discovered relevant to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy that will show who actually planned and carried out his murder. This new evidence will show that the Warren Commission report, which is the government’s final word on the assassination, is a complete cover-up of what actually took place. The following analysis of the assassination will include several events and situations that might not appear to be related to this murder, but will show the extensive intrigue behind it.

While riding in an open motorcade, President Kennedy was shot in Dealy Plaza on Friday, Nov. 22, 1963 at 12:30 p.m. The crowds were cheering. There was a great scene of rejoicing as the president of the United States made his way through downtown Dallas. It seemed as if everyone was smiling in those waving thousands. But presently, shots rang out, and President Kennedy, a short while later, lay dead at the Parkland Memorial Hospital.

This case has baffled people for the last four decades, and is one of the ten most unsolved mysteries of the last one hundred years. The Warren Commission was set up to investigate the assassination, and they concluded that a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, did it. They claimed that Oswald shot President Kennedy from the Dallas Book Depository building behind his car. But there is rather overwhelming evidence now that disproves the Warren Commission report and points to a massive cover-up and conspiracy behind the assassination. Two days after President Kennedy’s death Jack Ruby murdered Oswald. Why? Was it to keep him from talking?

There were basically two main reasons why Kennedy was assassinated. These reasons are involved with the Vietnam War, and the Federal Reserve Bank.

President Kennedy sent two aides to Vietnam, McNamara and Taylor, who gathered intelligence that convinced him that the United States needed to withdraw from Vietnam. Their memo to the president was entitled, Report of McNamara-Taylor Mission to South Vietnam.

With this report in hand, President Kennedy had what he wanted. It contained the essence of decisions he had to make. He had to get re-elected to finish programs set in motion during his first term; he had to get Americans out of Vietnam. — Col. L. Fletcher Prouty, JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and The Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy, Carol Publishing Group, p. 264.

Fletcher Prouty tells us that,

On Nov. 22, 1963, the government of the United States was taken over by the superpower group that wanted an escalation of the warfare in Indochina, and a continuing military buildup for generations to come. — Ibid. p. 264.

As President Kennedy began to de-escalate American involvement in Southeast Asia, this superpower group was planning his murder. Following Kennedy’s assassination, they made sure that America would remain in Vietnam for a long time.

Who was this group? Who wanted us in South Vietnam and why? When we answer these questions, the people behind the assassination of JFK will be known.

Avro Manhattan was a British journalist who worked for many years for the British Broadcasting Company. He has written at least 15 books on the role of the Roman Catholic Church in world affairs. In his book, Vietnam: Why Did We Go?, he tells us,

The political and military origin of the war of Vietnam has been described with millions of written and spoken words. Yet, nothing has been said about one of the most significant forces which contributed to its promotion, namely, the role played by religion, which in this case, means the part played by the Catholic Church, and by her diplomatic counterpart, the Vatican. Their active participation is not mere speculation. It is an historical fact as concrete as the presence of the U.S., or the massive guerilla resistance of Asian communism. The activities of the last two have been scrutinized by thousands of books, but the former has never been assessed, not even in a summarized form. The Catholic Church must be considered as a main promoter in the origin, escalation and prosecution of the Vietnamese conflict. From the very beginning this religious motivation helped set in motion the avalanche that was to cause endless agonies in the Asiatic and American continents.

The price paid was immense: thousands of billions of dollars; the mass dislocation of entire populations; political anarchy; military devastation on an unprecedented scale; the disgrace upon the civilized world; the loss of thousands upon thousands of young Asian and American lives. Last but not least, the wounding, mutilation, and death of hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children. The tragedy of Vietnam will go down in history as one of the most pernicious deeds of the contemporary alliance between politics and organized religion.

Factors of a political, ideological, economic, and military nature played no mean role in the unfolding of the war, but the religion of the Catholic Church was one of its main instigators. From the beginning her role has been minimized when not obliterated altogether. Concrete facts however, cannot be wiped away so easily, and it is these which we shall now scrutinize, even if briefly. — Avro Manhattan, Vietnam: Why Did We Go?, Chick Publications, 1984, p. 13, emphasis added.

The publisher’s foreword to this book, page 3, states:

Avro Manhattan, world authority on Vatican politics, has blown the cover on the real reason our boys suffered and died in Vietnam. He traces their death to the Vatican’s passionate desire to make Asia Roman Catholic. Vatican agents hatched and plotted the Vietnam War. American soldiers were serving the Vatican in their desperate struggle to survive the jungles, the hell of warfare, pain, death and destruction. It was all engineered by…her Jesuits. — Ibid. p. 3, emphasis added.

Many, especially Catholics, may take exception to the facts stated in the previous quotes, but we must present the facts as they are and as they happened. When this book talks about the Catholic Church, it is not speaking of the faithful church members who know nothing about things like this. It is speaking of the rulers of the Vatican and their Order of the Jesuits.

According to Avro Manhattan, the war in Vietnam was fought because the Vatican wanted to create a power base in Southeast Asia from which to take over all of Southeast Asia and then all of Asia. The following quotes are from this same book.

Ho Chi Minh began before World War Two to maneuver for a communist Vietnam. He received help from the U.S. against the Japanese but used that aid to consolidate his hold on the highlands of Tonkin. In August, 1945 he marched into Hanoi and set up the provisional government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. A master strategist, he cooperated in the transplanting of nearly a million Catholic North Vietnamese into the South…After the election of Pope John the 23rd in 1958 and the turn of the Vatican from the Cold War toward cooperation with Marxism, Ho Chi Minh made a secret deal with Pope John which eventually led to full control of the country by the North. — Ibid. p. 177.

President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam was a practicing Catholic who ruled South Vietnam with an iron fist. He was a genuine believer in the evil of Communism and the uniqueness of the Catholic Church. He had originally been planted in the presidency by Cardinal Spellman and Pope Pius the 12th. He transformed the presidency into a virtual Catholic dictatorship, ruthlessly crushing his religious and political opponents. Many Buddhist monks committed suicide by fire, burning themselves alive in protest against his religious persecutions. His discriminatory persecution of non-Catholics, particularly Buddhists, caused the disruption of the government and mass desertions in the army. This eventually led to U.S. military intervention in South Vietnam.

In this terrorization he was aided by his two Catholic brothers, the Chief of the Secret Police and the Archbishop of Hue. — Ibid. p. 56, (emphasis added).

Cardinal Francis Spellman, the archbishop of New York, was the key man that brought America into the conflict.

He was active in persuading the U.S. to select Diem and support him as president of South Vietnam. He was made Vicar General of the U.S. Armed Forces and called the GIs the ‘Soldiers of Christ’ [meaning soldiers for the Catholic Church] in his frequent visits to the Vietnam war front. — Ibid. p. 71.

The Vatican played both sides against each other in this Vietnamese Civil War. They controlled Diem in the South while advising and making secret deals with Ho Chi Minh in the North. Thus, however the war turned out, the Vatican would triumph and have control in Vietnam. President Kennedy’s attempt to halt the bloodbath incurred the undying wrath of the instigators of the war — the Jesuits of the papacy.

President Kennedy began to de-escalate America’s involvement in Vietnam shortly before his death. The day after his brutal murder, the following occurred:

At 8:30 a.m., Saturday, the 23rd of November, 1963, the limousine carrying CIA director John McCone pulled into the White House grounds…. He was also there to transact one piece of business prior to becoming involved in all the details entailed in a presidential transition — the signing of National Security Memorandum 278, a classified document which immediately reversed John Kennedy’s decision to de-escalate the war in Vietnam. The effect of Memorandum 278 would give the Central Intelligence Agency carte blanche to proceed with a full-scale war in the Far East…. In effect, as of November 23, 1963, the Far East would replace Cuba as the thorn in America’s side. It would also create a whole new source of narcotics for the Mafia’s worldwide markets. — Robert Morrow, First Hand Knowledge, Shapolsky Publishers, p. 249.

The day after Kennedy was killed, the decision to stop America’s involvement in Vietnam was reversed and the Vatican’s program continued.

Morrow’s statement also revealed another reason for the Jesuits wanting to continue the war; they would make billions of dollars in the international drug trade. For the last four centuries, the Jesuits had been involved in the Far East drug trade and they certainly did not want to lose this opportunity, even if it meant the lives of millions of people!

Since the original Jesuit mission had established itself in Beijing in 1601, the Society of Jesus [the Jesuits] had held the key to the Far East Trade — including the drug trade. — assorted authors, Dope, Inc.: The Book that Drove Kissenger Crazy, Executive Intelligence Review, p. 117, (emphasis added).

The Jesuit controlled politicians in Washington wanted to continue the war in Vietnam. They wanted to create a Catholic power in Southeast Asia. They wanted to maintain their control of the international drug market that they had held for 400 years in the Far East. When President Kennedy stood in their way, he had to be removed. The Jesuits had John Kennedy assassinated.

The second reason for Kennedy’s assassination was his intention to eliminate the Federal Reserve. Colonel James Gritz explains,

When Kennedy called for a return of America’s currency to the gold standard, and the dismantling of the Federal Reserve System — he actually minted non-debt money that does not bear the mark of the Federal Reserve; when he dared to actually exercise the leadership authority granted to him by the U.S. Constitution…Kennedy prepared his own death warrant. It was time for him to go. — Colonel James Gritz, Called to Serve: Profiles in Conspiracy from John F. Kennedy to George Bush, Lazarus Publishing, pp 511, 512.

President Kennedy was attempting to dismantle the Federal Reserve System, which is the central bank of the United States, a creation of the Jesuits.

The Constitution of the United States gives to Congress the power to coin money. If the U. S. Congress coined its own money as the Constitution directs, it would not have to pay the hundreds of billions of dollars of interest that it now pays each year to the bankers for the national debt, for money that came out of nothing This is why Kennedy began to issue U.S. government money that was free of debt to replace the Federal Reserve dollars we have been using.

We have seen in previous chapters who was responsible for the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank, and the unconstitutional operation of this bank that steals money from U.S. citizens. The Jesuits, if you will remember from chapter two, tried to assassinate President Andrew Jackson for discontinuing the central bank. They unfortunately succeeded in assassinating Kennedy for trying to do the same thing. The Jesuits uses the wealth created by the Federal Reserve to finance their murderous deeds.

John Kennedy incurred the deadly wrath of the Jesuits for daring to act as the President and not as their puppet.

But you say, “Wait a minute. Kennedy was a Roman Catholic. He was the only Catholic president we ever had.” That is exactly right. Even though Kennedy was Catholic, he put the welfare of the United States before the desires of the papacy. He was not a Jesuit.

Here is a very interesting section from the secret instructions of the Jesuit Order, written by their founder, Ignatius Loyola.

Finally, let all with such artfulness gain the ascendance over princes, noblemen and the magistrates of every place that they may be ready at our beck and call, even to sacrifice their nearest relatives and most intimate friends when we say it is for our interest and our advantage. — W. C. Brownlee, Secret Instructions of the Jesuits, American and Foreign Christian Union, p. 47.

We see here that if the Jesuit Order says that a person is to die, it doesn’t matter if it is your best friend, if it is your father or your brother; they are to be killed. What a dastardly, evil, and wicked system the Jesuit Order of the Roman Catholic Church is.

Do you think that the Catholic Church isn’t that powerful? Do you think this makes them out to be too strong? Avro Manhattan tells us:

Cardinal Francis Spellman, of New York , was the military vicar of the American Armed Forces in Vietnam. He was also the unofficial link between the pope and John Foster Dulles, the U.S. Secretary of State and therefore the Secretary’s brother, Alan, who was the head of the CIA. — Avro Manhattan, Murder in the Vatican, Ozark Books, pp. 35, 36.

Thus, through Cardinal Francis Spellman, the Roman Catholic Church and the Jesuits had access to and control over John Foster Dulles, the Secretary of State, and John Foster Dulles’ brother, Alan, who was the head of the Central Intelligence Agency. Those two departments, along with the FBI, were in the hands of Cardinal Francis Spellman, the head Cardinal of the Catholic Church in New York.

The Catholic Church in the USA, financially can stand up to all the giant trusts of America. Politically, she looms ever larger in the White House, in the Senate and in the Congress. She is a force in the Pentagon, a secret agent in the FBI and the most subtly intangible prime mover of the S.S. wheel within a wheel; the Central Intelligence Agency. — Ibid. p. 271.

Jean Hill was also a witness to the Kennedy murder. In her book, entitled JFK: The Last Dissenting Witness, she states that during a conversation her friend, J.B., who was one of the policeman in the motorcade that was with Kennedy, told her,

“Well, while Kennedy was busy shaking hands with all the well wishers at the airport, Johnson’s Secret Service people came over to the motorcycle cops and gave us a bunch of instructions. The darnedest thing was they told us the parade route through Dealy Plaza was being changed.” “Changed? How,” Jean Hill asks. “It was originally supposed to go straight down Main Street.” J.B. said, “but they said for us to disregard that. Instead we were told to make the little jog on Houston and cut over to Elm.” Jean felt her mouth drop open. “If you’d stayed on Main Street, Kennedy might’ve been completely out of range of whoever was shooting at him. My ‘shooter’ behind the wooden fence definitely wouldn’t have had much chance to hit him from there.” J.B. stared at her with a straight face. “Maybe that’s why they changed the route,” he said bluntly. “But that’s not all. They also ordered us into the craziest escort formation I’ve ever seen. Ordinarily, you bracket the car with four motorcycles, one on each fender. But this time they told the four of us assigned to the president’s car there’d be no forward escorts. We were to stay well to the back and not let ourselves get ahead of the car’s rear wheels under any circumstances. I’d never heard of a formation like that much less ridden in one, but they said they wanted to let the crowds have an ‘unrestricted view’ of the president. Well, I guess somebody got an unrestricted view of him all right.” — Jean Hill, JFK: The Last Dissenting Witness, Pelican Publishing, p. 113.

So, the motorcade route through Dallas was changed, and the reason given was so that the people would have an excellent view of the president of the United States. The Jesuit assassins sure did!

Other peculiar things happened too. Lyndon Johnson, the vice president of the United States, was apparently having a real problem. Continuing with Jean Hill’s conversation with her friend in the motorcade,

“What are you talking about?” Jean asked innocently. “I don’t understand.” “My friends in the motorcade say he started ducking down in the car a good 30 or 40 seconds before the first shots were fired. I’d say that’s just a little peculiar wouldn’t you?” “Oh, come on, J.B,” Jean Hill said, thinking he had to be joking. “They obviously weren’t serious, were they?” “As far as I know they were dead serious.” J.B. said. “One of them told Maguire that he saw Johnson duck down even before the car turned onto Houston Street, and he sure as ____ wasn’t laughing when he said it.” “Well, maybe Johnson just dropped something on the floor and bent over to pick it up. I mean there can be a simple explanation.” “Maybe so.” J.B. said. “I don’t claim to know what his reasons were but this guy said it sure looked like he was expecting bullets to be flying. When I heard it, it made me start wondering about a whole lot of other stuff too.” — Ibid. pp. 114-116.

Lyndon Johnson was acting as if he knew bullets would soon be flying, ducking down repeatedly before the shots went off.

Texas law prohibits people that die in the state of Texas from being removed without an autopsy. Leading doctors at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas were held at gunpoint as the body of John F. Kennedy was removed from that hospital without an autopsy. Why? There was overwhelming evidence that there was more than one bullet that killed JFK. There was overwhelming evidence that the Warren Commission report was nothing but lies. There were many bullets that the doctors would have found that would have shattered the idea that Lee Harvey Oswald was the loan gunman. That is why an autopsy was not allowed in Texas. That is why Kennedy’s body was shipped to Washington D.C. where a federal autopsy could be made, where they could fabricate the evidence to support the lies of the Warren commission. There was a Jesuit led conspiracy to kill JFK and they didn’t want the evidence to get out, no matter how many people had to be killed in the process.

If there really were several bullets fired that day in Dealy Plaza, then certainly the car would have contained evidence of this. And so it did.

Three days after the assassination, Carl Renas, head of security at the Dearborn Division of the Ford Motor Company, drives the limousine, helicopters hovering over head, from Washington to Cincinnati. In doing so, he noticed several bullet holes, the most notable being the one in the windshield’s chrome molding strip, which he said was clearly ‘a primary strike’ and ‘not a fragment,’ The limousine was taken by Renas to Hess and Eisenhart of Cincinnati where the chrome molding was replaced. The Secret Service told Renas to “keep your mouth shut.” — Charles Crenshaw, JFK: Conspiracy of Silence, Penguin Books USA, p. 106.

Renas was the head of security for the Dearborn Division of Ford Motor Co. Who was the head of that division in 1963 that dispatched Renas for the task of his life?

Henry Ford II says today that the first time he can remember meeting Lee Iacocca was in November 1960 when he summoned the young salesman to his office to tell them he was giving him command of the Ford division [at Dearborn]. — Robert Lacey, Ford, the Men and the Machine, Ballantine Books, p. 531.

Lee Iacocca was the man in charge of the Dearborn Division of the Ford Motor Company, who dispatched Carl Renas to go to Washington D.C. to get the car that JFK was in when he was assassinated. Iacocca was the head of the Dearborn Division until he became President of Ford Motor Company in 1970. Iacocca was part of the cover-up because he suppressed evidence concerning JFK’s assassination.

What connection does he have with the Catholic Church? In Iacocca’s autobiography he says,

It took me a number of years to fully understand why I had to make a good confession to a priest before I went to Holy Communion, but in my teens I began to appreciate the importance of this most misunderstood right of the Catholic Church. In later years, I found myself completely refreshed after confession. I even began to attend weekend retreats where the Jesuits in face-to-face examinations of conscience made me come to grips with how I was conducting my life. — Iacocca: An Autobiography, Bantam Books, p. 8.

Roman Catholic Lee Iacocca, head of the Dearborn division of the Ford Motor Co. was the one who dispatched Carl Renas to get the limousine that had the evidence of multiple bullets that were shot from multiple guns that killed John F. Kennedy. Isn’t it amazing that many years later as President of Chrysler, Lee Iacocca went to Congress and asked for financial help? Since Catholic Iacocca had been such an obedient servant to his Jesuit masters, another obedient Catholic by the name of Thomas ‘Tip’ O’Neill used his power as Speaker of the House to get Lee Iacocca all the money he needed.

There were many people who knew a great deal about the Kennedy assassination. Unfortunately, almost all of them died under mysterious circumstances. There was a concerted effort to be sure that no secrets were ever told. Even Jean Hill stated that several attempts were made to kill her and her children.

Jim Marrs, author of Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy, wrote: “In the three-year period which followed the murder of President Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald, 18 material witnesses died — six by gunfire, three in motor accidents, two by suicide, one from a cut throat, one from a karate chop to the neck, five from natural causes.” ...A mathematician hired by the London Sunday Times in February of 1967 concluded that the odds of the number of witnesses involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy dying between November 22, 1963 and that date were 100,000 trillion to one.... In the time period ranging from November 22, 1963 to August 1993 over 115 ‘witnesses’ have died or fallen victim to death by strange circumstances, suicides or murder. — Craig Roberts and John Armstrong, JFK: The Dead Witnesses, Consolidated Press, p. 3.

Kennedy was one of many Presidents, kings, Czars, and emperors who refused to obey the Jesuits and was killed for it. The role of the papacy in the heinous murder and cover-up of this crime cannot be denied. We have seen that the Vatican had a motive, the people in key positions to carry it out, and the people in key positions to cover it up.

There was one group, one organization, whose historical background was characterized by the planning and execution of such deeds; that had a lasting consistent motive, before, during and after the crime; that had the necessary international connections; that had the money; that could elicit suicidal self-sacrifice in its members; and that continued to exist through all phases of the assassination conspiracy. This is the Roman Catholic Church. — Emmett McLoughlin, An Inquiry into the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Lyle Stuart, Inc.1963, p. 161.

Winston Churchill, the famous English Prime Minister during World War Two, once said,

Most men occasionally stumble over the truth, but they pick themselves up and continue on as if nothing had happened.

We now understand the facts concerning one of the most controversial events in American history. Will you stumble over the truth here and go on as if nothing has happened or will you begin to analyze history and current events in a new light?


Chapter 9: The Waco Massacre <<< Click

Return to Pacific Institute’s home page <<< Click

 

Posted by Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor
August 29, 2009 09:05 PM

At the graveside service at Arlington National Cemetery for Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, archbishop emeritus of Washington, D.C. and a family friend, read portions of the letter that President Obama delivered on Kennedy's behalf to the pope last month and portions of the pope's reply.

Kennedy's letter:

"Most Holy Father, I asked President Obama to personally hand deliver this letter to you. As a man of deep faith himself, he understands how important my Roman Catholic faith is to me, and I am deeply grateful to him.

"I hope this letter finds you in good health. I pray that you have all of God’s blessings as you lead our Church and inspire our world during these challenging times.

"I am writing with deep humility to ask that you pray for me as my own health declines. I was diagnosed with brain cancer more than a year ago, and, although I continue treatment, the disease is taking its toll on me. I am 77 years old and preparing for the next passage of life.

"I have been blessed to be a part of a wonderful family, and both of my parents, particularly my mother, kept our Catholic faith at the center of our lives. That gift of faith has sustained, nurtured and provided solace to me in the darkest hours. I know that I have been an imperfect human being, but with the help of my faith, I have tried to right my path.

"I want you to know, Your Holiness, that in my nearly 50 years of elective office, I have done my best to champion the rights of the poor and open doors of economic opportunity. I’ve worked to welcome the immigrant, fight discrimination and expand access to health care and education. I have opposed the death penalty and fought to end war. Those are the issues that have motivated me and been the focus of my work as a United States Senator.

"I also want you to know that even though I am ill, I am committed to do everything I can to achieve access to health care for everyone in my country. This has been the political cause of my life. I believe in a conscience protection for Catholics in the health care field and will continue to advocate for it as my colleagues in the Senate and I work to develop an overall national health policy that guarantees health care for everyone.

"I have always tried to be a faithful Catholic, Your Holiness, and though I have fallen short through human failings, I have never failed to believe and respect the fundamental teachings. I continue to pray for God’s blessings on you and our Church and would be most thankful for your prayers for me."

Pope Benedict XVI's reply, via a Vatican official:

"The Holy Father has read the letter which you entrusted to President Barack Obama, who kindly presented it to him during their recent meeting. He was saddened to know of your illness, and has asked me to assure you of his concern and his spiritual closeness. He is particularly grateful for your promise of prayers for him and for the needs of the universal Church.

"His Holiness prays that in the days ahead you may be sustained in faith and hope, and granted the precious grace of joyful surrender to the will of God our merciful Father. He invokes upon you the consolation and peace promised by the Risen Savior to all who share in His sufferings and trust in His promise of eternal life.

"Commending you and the members of your family to the loving intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Father cordially imparts his Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of wisdom, comfort and strength in the Lord."

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2009/08/priest_makes_ke.html