Is this relevant?

I mean, isn't this at all contradictory or is this just another trick of perception.

From David Corn, author of 'The Lies of George W. Bush':

Even though George W. Bush, in the Pope's book, is not destined for the grand reward, he's still heading to Rome for the final farewell. It's no secret that Karl Rove has a Catholic strategy, trying to lure Catholic voters to GOP pews. Bush, an Episcopalian-turned-Methodist, has courted Catholics by talking of his own personal faith, Jesus (his favorite philosopher), and that "culture of life." But it's hard to accept Bush as a sincere supplicant, for in 2000 he was damn fast to enlist an anti-Catholic institution in his effort to rescue his troubled presidential campaign.

After Bush lost the New Hampshire primary to upstart John McCain, the South Carolina primary became the next major battle. The Bushies were determined to do anything--that is, anything--to defeat McCain in the Palmetto State and smother this insurgency. That meant spreading malicious rumors about the former war hero and his family, mounting dirty tricks, and falsely attacking McCain for not supporting veterans' issues in the Senate. A key part of the Bush strategy was to swing the social conservatives of South Carolina--of which there are many--behind the candidate who proclaimed himself a uniter-not-a-divider. Seeking to kowtow to the religious-right Republicans of South Carolina, Bush scheduled a visit to Bob Jones University, a hotbed of racist and anti-Catholic fundamentalism.

BJU was widely known for banning interracial dating. In 1981, the school asked the Reagan administration to award it tax-exempt status even though it practiced racial discrimination. The Reaganites said yes, but subsequent protests queered the deal. And Bob Jones University's bigotry extended beyond race to religion, particularly Catholicism. In the 1980s, the former head of the school, Bob Jones Jr, claimed that "all the popes are demon-possessed." He called John Paul II "the greatest danger we face today." He maintained that "the papacy is the religion of Antichrist and is a satanic system." And like father, like son, Bob Jones III, the school's president since 1971, called John Paul the Antichrist. In 1987, when John Paul II visited Columbia, South Carolina, Jones III said he would rather "speak to the devil himself" than with the Pontiff. In 2000--shortly after Bush spoke at BJU--New York Times columnist Bob Herbert asked the school if it had ever repudiated the Jones' anti-Catholic statements. The answer: no.

When Bush was challenged about his visit to BJU, he said, "When I go to speak to voters, I don't necessarily have to embrace the polices of the university." That's true--to an extent. But if the official policy of a school is that blacks are inferior or that Jews are evil, an elected official and responsible politician ought not to legitimize the institution by asking to borrow its soapbox. After his appearance at Bob Jones University, Bush caught much criticism. Looking ahead to important primary elections in New York and Michigan--Catholic-rich states--Bush wrote Cardinal John O'Connor, the Archbishop of New York, and said he regretted not having spoken out against BJU while on its campus.