The Times Online reports: "President Bush arrived at the Vatican this morning to a welcome from Pope Benedict XVI so unusually cordial that it gave rise to speculation in the Italian press that Mr Bush might convert to Catholicism.
In an unprecedented move the pontiff met Mr Bush for their final encounter not in the papal library, as is usual under normally strict Vatican protocol, but at St John's Tower, a restored medieval tower in the Vatican walls used to house the Vatican's VIP guests.
As he entered the tower with the Pope, Mr Bush repeatedly exclaimed, "this is such an honour, such an honour". The talks were followed by a stroll around the Vatican gardens and a performance by the Sistine Chapel choir of motets by Palestrina and Liberto in the grotto of the Madonna of Lourdes.
Marco Politi, the veteran Vatican correspondent of La Repubblica, said that Mr Bush's unstinting admiration for the Pope had given rise to talk of the President's possible conversion.
Vatican sources said that no conversion process was under way, and could in any case only take place — as in the case of Mr Blair — once Mr Bush had left office."
It's coming.... I give it 220 days....
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