The problem, though, was that RTÉ had been on the spot for the previous four weeks.
Ever since Pope Benedict announced his retirement a month ago, you'd be forgiven for thinking that RTÉ's news department was based in Rome rather than Donnybrook, with round-the-clock bulletins from Bryan Dobson, Eileen Dunne, Sean O'Rourke, Miriam O'Callaghan, Joe Little, Fergal Keane, Tony Connolly, Fran McNulty, Uncle Tom Cobley and all.
Indeed, for the last four weeks it sometimes seemed that the only RTÉ people not enjoying the clement weather, charming hotels and culinary delights of the Italian capital were Marty Whelan, Bláthnaid Ní Chofaigh and the cast of Fair City.
It was all a bit strange. We're constantly being assured by earnest pundits that – in the wake of clerical sex scandals which have eroded respect for the Church – we're now living in a post-Catholic Ireland, but no one seems to have told RTÉ.
Indeed, whenever the station is not getting into trouble for libelling blameless members of the clergy it reverts to its traditional stance of dutiful genuflection towards a troubling institution and its Roman masters.
However, for those of its viewers who are no longer so tolerant of the Catholic church, a month in the Eternal City has seemed an inordinately long time to be spent by a state broadcaster that should be more intent on addressing domestic problems which seem just as eternal and an awful lot more pressing.