Anyone else creeped out by the Pope’s visit?

Is it just me, or is anyone else more than a little creeped out by the Pope’s visit to the United States, specifically Premiere Bush’s behavior regarding the visit? Isn’t it a little weird that a religious leader of a minority religion receives such a response from the country? For example:

• This is the first time in his eight years that President Bush has travelled to the airport to greet a foreign leader.
• “Lampposts fluttered with flags in the red-white-and-blue of America and yellow-and-white of the Holy See.” When has the United States ever done anything like this before?
• “[The Pope's] 90-minute stay at the White House — only the second ever by a pope — was accompanied by the kind of pomp and pageantry rarely seen even on grounds accustomed to routinely welcoming royalty and the world’s most important leaders.”

Is this just strange or what? I can understand a warm welcome for a religious leader, but doesn’t this seem excessive?