The wrong end of the stick

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Feb 26, 2005

The big news is that Pope John Paul will not participate in the usual Angelus audience on Sunday. So what's the headline on the AP story, as relayed by ABC?

"Pope to Join in Sunday Prayers"

Now mind you, neither the ABC headline nor the AP itself is inaccurate. The Pope is going to pray on Sunday.

And that's a good thing, to be sure. But here at CWN-- where Sunday prayer is not considered an astonishing thing-- we thought that the newsworthy aspect of the story is that, for the first time in the last 1,360-odd Sundays, the Pope will not pray in public.