The anchors of The Today Show were aflutter. Habitual viewers of this morning program are aware that over-excitement has become the primary disposition of the anchors and the rotating cast of meteorologists/journalists/pop culture icons charged with reporting upon Twitter trends. In this particular case, the excitement was not facilitated by Will and Kate’s New York sojourn and their meeting with Jay-Z and Beyoncé. Rather, The Today Show was covering Pope Francis’ recent comments (which it turns out he never made) about the salvation of pets.

Of course, those of us who watch this program each morning know that Pope Francis is a frequent topic of conversation among those reporting from the heart of Rockefeller Center. Every speech that he gives, every homily that he preaches, each interview he conducts becomes a source of new information about the role of the Church in the modern world. The significance of Pope Francis…