HONG KONG — Pope Benedict XVI is the antithesis of a pop star, elderly, shy, set in his ways, even finding it hard to hold a note. Yet in the United Kingdom the week before last, he received massive pop-starlike adulation, with successive crowds of 120,000 lining the streets of Edinburgh merely to watch him pass by, 60,000 for Mass in Glasgow, 80,000 in London's Hyde Park for a prayer vigil (tens of thousands more lined his route), and 60,000 in Birmingham, many holding banners proclaiming their love for him.

Benedict made a deep impression, not merely on the crowds. David Cameron, the U.K. prime minister, in bidding farewell, thanked the pope and claimed that he had "challenged the whole country to sit up and think" that "we can all share in your message of working for the common good."

Might I suggest that it is time for Benedict to get out more and meet his people, kiss babies, shake hands, bless and be blessed, feel the affection and love, and realize that being a grumpy old man is not the best way to lead the Roman Catholic Church. The moment that Benedict was allowed space by his security guards, he became transformed, radiant, particularly when meeting the young and the old. If he remembers the fervor of the pilgrims, the biggest achievement of Benedict's U.K. tour could be in changing the pope himself.