PORTUGAL PREPARES
TO WELCOME THE POPE
I thought the pre-visit coverage in the American media was the most extensive one could possibly expect of a papal visit...but I had a most pleasant surprise last night when I did a Portuguese language search for material on the papal visit - to find that in addition to the official site - whose many pre-visit materials are being used on the sites online that reference the papal visit,
the whole spectrum of Portuguese society appears to be into it, if one judges by the sites, in which even bookstores and publishing houses, for instance, are joining in (advertising all the Portuguese editions of the Ratzinger/Benedict XVI oeuvre).
On top of that, the official site which had been rather scarce with news, erupted in the past three days with a bonanza of pre-visit news items whose headlines alone take up three pages of a 6-point printout on Word! Amazing... (However, I'm still figuring out how to present the highlights bestm as I have to translate everything).
Anyway, here is a sampling of sites other than the official sites....
Starting with the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
A 'People'-type popular magazine:
NB: The CARAS 'roteira' - an event-by-event locator of the four-day papal visit - is semi-animated.
Right, a labor union site; right, a parish site.
A very good private site.
Among other things, it has about 30 pre-visit videoclips right now...
The event map from a TV site:
Anticipating the Pope's visit
Lisbon, Portugal (EWTN News) - Pope Benedict XVI will be welcomed to Portugal next week by a population that is nearly 90 percent Catholic. Final preparations for the Holy Father's visit to the country are coming together and interest in the visit is reaching a peak.
With the Pope's visit set for May 11-14, statistics about the Catholic Church in Portugal from the Vatican's Central Statistical Office, almost 9.4 million out of the 10.6 million people in the country are Catholic, as of DEc. 31, 2008.
As documented in a flurry of recent updates on the Portuguese bishops' website promoting the trip,
www.bentoxviportugal.pt, many Portuguese Catholics and other Christians from abroad will be taking part in the festivities and celebrations organized for Benedict XVI's four days there.
Among the news items released today are reports that a group of 40 young Russian pilgrims will be housed in Portuguese homes for their time in Lisbon and 1,000 young Spaniards will be joining a group of 3,000 local youths for Mass in the capital, who plan to serenade the Pope at the Apostolic Nunciature on the night of May 11.
A documentary on the Pope for the visit is entitled "Pope Benedict XVI: A Love Affair with the Truth."
Sr. Angela Coleman, the vice postulator for the canonization cause of the shepherd children of Fatima, told Agência Ecclesia in an interview that she is encouraged that the Pope's visit could revive interest in the message of Fatima.
The Occasion for the Pope's visit is to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the beatification of the shepherd children, Jacinta and Francisco Marto.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 08/05/2010 02:58]