Jeb Bush and his wife, Columba, will attend a mass by the pope in Washington on September 23, according to a campaign official, who also said the visit will be “very low-key.”
Bush’s trip to see the pope was first reported by The Washington Post.
Bush, who came from an Episcopalian family, converted to Catholicism, his wife’s religion, in 1995 after he lost his first gubernatorial bid in Florida. He often describes his conversion as a turning point in his life that made him more compassionate.
While he disagrees with the pope on issues like climate change and capitalism — he has said he doesn’t get “economic policy from my bishops or my cardinal or my pope” — Bush has nonetheless expressed admiration for Pope Francis. On the campaign trail, he’s described the pope as “gifted beyond belief” and one whose “voice is one of love and compassion.”
Holding a town hall in Laconia, New Hampshire, Thursday night, Bush said he “loves” the pope and complimented his way of articulating complex issues.
“He figures out ways to say things that I, you know, struggle with. He says, ‘you can believe in science and believe in God. It’s not one or the other.’ I should have said that,” Bush said to laughs. “That’s the right way to say it.”
Earlier this week, the pope declared that women who’ve had abortions can be forgiven when the church begins a “Year of Mercy” this December. Responding to the news, Bush said Tuesday that he was “not surprised at all” by the pope’s decision.
“Look, I think we could all use a lot of mercy in this world. And the pope is a loving person, and having absolution — [allowing] the priest to give absolution is extraordinary, but I’m not surprised at all,” he said in an interview on Fox News. “I hope that we also focus on mercy for the unborn, the hundreds of thousands of babies that will die. I think we need to have a society that protects life from the beginning to end, and we should be a repentant society for sure. And mercy should be at the heart of everything we do.”