It is a message of Christianity that is as old as Christ -- indeed, in the New Testament is is presented as "seek ye first the Kingdom of God." Ad the many young pilgrims who traveled to Sydney, Australia for the World Youth Day celebration with Pope Benedict XVI heard the pontiff restate it for them.

Indeed, he noted that placing the spiritual before the material was the key to bringing about the renewal of our modern society.

"In so many of our societies, side by side with material prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading: an interior emptiness, an unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair," the pontiff said.

Quite true -- indeed, we see the results of that emptiness every day in news reports and popular entertainment that rejects the values of God.

Sadly, the need to focus on the sensational over the spiritual was demonstrated by AP and CNN, when they recast their article to focus not on the message but on a meeting with a small group of victims of clergy abuse and the complaints by Church critics that they were not included. Perhaps the most obvious sign of this was CNN's change of headline -- from

Pope: 'Spiritual Desert' Growing Across World

Pope meets abuse victims in Australia

After all, it would never do to focus on the Good News when the salacious is available.