The crowd of 2,500 graduates, parents and friends gave Bush frequent applause, but outside nearly two hundred people protested over a variety of issues, including the White House Office of Faith-based and Community initiatives. Mike Suetkamp, Indiana State Director for American Atheists, told Fox News and the South Bend Tribune newspaper that using public money to fund social programs was a violaion of the First Amendment separation of church and state. Other protesters challenged Bush over a number of issues including the environment and cut-backs in social services. The President focused most of his address, though, on an effort to revive his faith-based initiative which has divided even religious groups, and brought strong opposition from civil libertarians. As he has done in the past, Mr. Bush continued to deny that his federal initiative threatened the separation of church and state, or had anything to do with promoting religious belief.
Government loans send countless students to religious colleges.
Of course not. It was also another indication of Bush's strategy in trying to mobilize America's largest religious denomination, the Roman Catholic Church, in his effort to sell the controversial faith-based initiative. In the year 2000 election race, Catholics were one of several voting blocks targeted by the Republican campaign, along with suburbanites and Hispanics. Bevilacqua is also known within the church hierarchy as a staunch advocate of imposing sanctions on rebellious Roman Catholics who espouse beliefs contrary to church teachings. Bevilacqua has met twice with Bush since January, and the White House has not released information about what the two leaders have been discussing.