A friend sent this item my way with the question: “Do you think he’ll convert after he leaves office?”

I suppose anything is possible. It does seem that the president enjoys hanging out with nuns and priests and assorted Catholics, doesn’t it?

Read on:

Immersed for two days in the intense and arcane world of Mideast peacemaking, President Bush looked relieved Friday to see something of the landscape that all the fighting is about. Obviously moved, he even giggled, too.

Bush retraced the steps of Jesus and his disciples in the ancient town of Capernaum and gazed out on the nearby Sea of Galilee, where the Bible says Jesus walked on water and calmed a sudden storm by commanding the wind and waves to cease. The waters were crystal blue and calm when Bush visited, leaning in to listen as a brown-robed friar narrated his tour with New Testament passages.

“An amazing experience,” Bush happily said later.

Bush, who mentions his own religious faith frequently, is taking rare time out of a foreign trip this time for sightseeing, choosing visits over two days to some of Christianity’s holiest and most storied places. They included Friday’s stops at the sites of Jesus’ early teaching in northern Israel and Thursday’s visit to Jesus’ supposed birthplace in Bethlehem, in the West Bank.

After touring the Mount of Beatitudes, overlooking banana groves, a grinning Bush held hands with two elderly nuns, laughing with them and posing for pictures with their digital camera. A larger group of nuns later gave Bush a crystal statue inscribed with words from the fabled Sermon on the Mount, recounted in Matthew Chapter 5: “Blessed are those who are peacemakers for they will be called children of God.”

White House press secretary Dana Perino told reporters aboard Air Force One later that Bush especially enjoyed his time with the nuns.

“He said he loved their laughter. It was very joyous — the kind of laughter you can get when you have faith,” Perino said.

Perino also told The Associated Press that the tour “presented a good opportunity for reflection about the importance of the Middle East peace process.”

“However, as you know, President Bush is a man all about business and works very hard to fill up his days with as many meetings as he possibly can,” Perino added. “On the trip to the Holy Land, the President was able to see a bit more than usual and he was glad for the opportunity.”

Archbishop Elias Shakur, the Greek Catholic clergyman who showed Bush around the site, said he asked him, “Did you come as a politician, as a leader of state, or as a pilgrim?”

“I came as a pilgrim,” Bush replied, according to Shakur. If he also came seeking guidance for the difficult negotiations ahead he did not say so.

You can read more about the president’s “faith-based” trip right here.

People like to talk about the generous work that Jimmy Carter undertook after he left office. But, given his spiritual bent, George Bush may blaze even more remarkable trails. Stay tuned. Maybe one of those adventures will be across the Tiber…

Photo: President Bush with two Franciscan friars at the Sea of Galilee. By AP