President George W. Bush certainly thought so, giving him the rare honor of personally greeting him at the airport when he arrived and hosting a lavish dinner in his honor at the White House (though the Pope gave that event a skip).

But it was on the issues of immigration and child sex abuse that this Pope brought a marvelous message of hope and renewal for his church.

So effective was his immigration advocacy that he was attacked by Tom Tancredo, the Colorado congressman who has made hating all immigrants his daily staple.

Being attacked by Tancredo is surely a sign this Pope was getting the immigration issue right. On the plane from Rome he told reporters that the separation of families “is truly dangerous for the social moral and human fabric” of Latin American and Central American families.

“Families should be protected, not destroyed,” Benedict said. “As much as it can be done it should be done.”

He made similar comments to an audience of bishops and cardinals, and made a joint statement on the need for humane treatment for the undocumented with Bush. Some present at the bishop’s meeting thought he was also referring to the immigration raids carried out during his visit when five chicken plants were raided and 300 undocumented rounded up in the process.

Tancredo accused the pope of “faith-based marketing,” saying it was not in the Pope’s job description “to engage in American politics.”

It was the kind of lunging attack that has succeeded in demonizing defenders of immigrants in Tancredo’s America, but this was the Pope, not just some casual observer. Tancredo’s comments and the mean-spirited raids by immigration agents during the Pope’s visits revealed the utter inhumanity of the enforcement-only approach to immigration.

It took a man of the stature of the Pope to lay out the reality of the current hard hearted and utterly counterproductive approach to immigration in this country.

The humanity that America is famous for is becoming lost in the hate-filled and scapegoating rhetoric of the Tancredos and Lou Dobbs of the world.

The Pope has made it clear it is time to reclaim the high ground on this issue and seek a humane immigration policy. Let us hope that politicians and community leaders can now pick up the torch.

On the church sex abuse scandals, the Pope was also forthcoming. There were fears that he would sweep the issue under the carpet before his trip and continue to stonewall and try to avoid responsibility.

That did not happen. His meeting with the victims of abuse was an extraordinary development that will surely help begin to heal the dreadful wounds that such abuse has brought upon the church.

Safe to say the pope surprised everyone by his focus on this topic. Too often church leaders deliver sterile moral lessons for their flock while ignoring the mote in their own eye. That was not Benedict’s way.

It is to his enormous credit that he turned his American visit into one full of substance and progress, and not the photo op that many people believed it would be. In the process this man of the people has revealed a subtlety and understanding of this country that his predecessor lacked.

Pope Benedict XVI is a formidable force to be reckoned with.