The Pope flies in

The pope arrives in America today for his first official visit. During his five-day trip he is expected to address sensitive topics in his public speeches, such as the child-abuse scandal that has riven the Catholic church.  The Vatican has not revealed what he will actually say. But it is an open secret that American conservatives (not all of them Catholic) hope to claim the pope as one of their own, playing up issues like opposition to stem-cell research, which could save thousands of lives but which has met with vociferous opposition from the "pro-life" lobby, spearheaded by the powerful Hierarchy of the Catholic Church.