diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 551e607976..91148259c7 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -54,6 +54,8 @@ included in the vX.Y.Z section and be denoted as:
 Trunk (not on release branches yet)
 -----------------------------------
 
+- Do not build the MPI C++ bindings by default.  They must be enabled
+  via --enable-mpi-cxx.
 - Adding a new parallel I/O component and multiple new frameworks to 
   support parallel I/O operations.
 - ErrMgr framework redesigned to better support fault tolerance development
diff --git a/README b/README
index 973bcf638c..ff5bda1cc8 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -1078,7 +1078,7 @@ MPI FUNCTIONALITY
   Enable building the C++ MPI bindings.  The MPI C++ bindings were
   deprecated in MPI-2.2 and deleted in MPI-3.0.  Open MPI no longer
   builds its C++ bindings by default.  It is likely that the C++
-  binding will be removed from Open MPI at some point in the future.
+  bindings will be removed from Open MPI at some point in the future.
 
   Note that disabling building the C++ bindings does *not* disable all
   C++ checks during configure.
diff --git a/examples/hello_cxx.cc b/examples/hello_cxx.cc
index b612a4f7c6..b2253bfb8e 100644
--- a/examples/hello_cxx.cc
+++ b/examples/hello_cxx.cc
@@ -6,6 +6,13 @@
 //
 // Sample MPI "hello world" application in C++
 //
+// NOTE: The MPI C++ bindings were deprecated in MPI-2.2 and removed
+// from the standard in MPI-3.  Open MPI still provides C++ MPI
+// bindings, but they are no longer built by default (and may be
+// removed in a future version of Open MPI).  You must
+// --enable-mpi-cxx when configuring Open MPI to enable the MPI C++
+// bindings.
+//
 
 #include "mpi.h"
 #include <iostream>
diff --git a/examples/ring_cxx.cc b/examples/ring_cxx.cc
index 3ec3d9cc9e..1d752ee0c3 100644
--- a/examples/ring_cxx.cc
+++ b/examples/ring_cxx.cc
@@ -6,6 +6,13 @@
 //
 // Simple ring test program
 //
+// NOTE: The MPI C++ bindings were deprecated in MPI-2.2 and removed
+// from the standard in MPI-3.  Open MPI still provides C++ MPI
+// bindings, but they are no longer built by default (and may be
+// removed in a future version of Open MPI).  You must
+// --enable-mpi-cxx when configuring Open MPI to enable the MPI C++
+// bindings.
+//
 
 #include "mpi.h"
 #include <iostream>