Is The Pope Snubbing Bush by not Attending Dinner( More Bad Reporting)

Wonders never cease!!!! I woke up this morning to these headlines

Pope won't break bread with Bush
Pope won't attend White House dinner in his honor where we read at the end:
"But surely if Benedict wanted to, he could find time to break bread with the president of the United States.
No?" - This is the from the Dallas Morning News Religious Reporter!!!!!

There are others in a similar vein. The tenor of this articles is that Pope Benedict is sending some sort of point. Hmmm is he?

It would have been helpful if perhaps they called someone up as to this question that was a expert in Papal protocol. How often have you seen a Pope at a State Dinner anywhere when he is traveling? In fact how often have you seen the a Pope eat in public at all!!!

Vatican Watchers Whispers in the Loggia( That most Journalists that foucus on Catholic Matters are very aware of) gives us the answer yesterday in his post Ad Orientem Meets West Wing
"Only the second time a Pope's found his way to the nation's capital, the pontiff will be welcomed by President Bush both on his Tuesday arrival at Andrews AFB and then Wednesday morning at the White House. In keeping with papal protocol -- which shies away from the Pope eating in public view (aside, of course, from the Eucharist) -- and the precedent of his predecessors, who invariably declined the lavish expense of state banquets in their travels, the trip's opening event will be a mid-morning "diplomatic reception" featuring speeches by Benedict and Bush, and an opportunity for the two to converse privately in the Oval Office"

I am sure that the papers will have numerous stories of how politicians will try to make the Pope's trip political. However they will fail to note the irony that they are trying to do the same thing even as to details of Papal eating habits