For the third straight day today we are featuring a story about the pope’s visit to the United States on the front page of our print edition.

It’s an important story. A visit by the pope always is. But I hope that you notice the way we are approaching this story.

We are trying to tell much of the story through the eyes of Delaware County residents who are attending the events. Yesterday we talked to several local folks lucky enough to be attending the Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI in Washington, D.C. We will do the same on Sunday with the Mass at Yankee Stadium.

That did not stop one reader from calling to complain yesterday that we were giving the pope’s message short shrift. He believed we were missing the pope’s message while telling the story of the local flavor to his visit. He might have had a point. We have focused on the local angle.

But then he went over the line. He believes we did so on purpose, that we were willfully downplaying the pope’s message of hope and especially his thoughts on healing the pain caused by the church’s sex abuse scandal.

“If it’s a priest being arrested for abuse, it’s all over the front page,” he pointed out. “You’re missing his message.”

We are delivering a message. We are striving to deliver how the visit has affected people from Delaware County who are in attendance.

Obviously that’s not the message this gentleman wanted to hear.