OR special magazine
for the beatification
Translated from the 4/21/11 issue of
A special issue of 100 pages with full-color illustrations is the dutiful and staunch tribute to Karol Wojtyla - Pope John Paul II from 1958 to 2005 - which our newspaper has produced for his beatification on May 1 as an offering to believers and non-believers.
Printed in seven language editions (Italian, Polish, English, Spanish, German, French and Portuguese), the magazine will also be printed in seven countries on four continents - Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Italy, the United Kingdom and Spain, with a total printing of almost 400,000.
In Italy, it will be available in newspaper kiosks starting April 27, and will also be distributed as a supplement to three newspapers of the Quotidiano Nazionale group:
Il Resto del Carlino of Bologna;
La Nazione of Florence; and
Il Giorno of Milan.
In addition to John Paul II's spiritual testament and the funeral eulogy of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the magazine will contain the homilies that Benedict XVI has given about his predecessor; texts by Karol Wojtyla, and a selection of articles and interviews about him, with a detailed chronology of his life and Pontificate.
This is our homage to an exemplary Christian and great Bishop of Rome whose Pontificate already has a place in history. The magazine is a true collector's issue illustrated with rare and beautiful photographs.
Today, Vatican Radio's English service features a talk with John Paul II's leading English biographer George Weigel...
John Paul's beatification:
'The Church confirms
the people's acclamation'
April 21, 2011
With just over 10 days to go before the beatification of John Paul the Second, we are shining the spotlight more brightly than before on the incredible legacy of this Polish-born Pope, who during his long pontificate set record after record and made history time after time.
One person who became a personal friend of Pope John Paul and had numerous private interviews and meetings with him is U.S. Catholic Scholar George Weigel who wrote a best-selling biography of the Pope entitled
Witness to Hope published in 1999.
More than a decade later, Weigel wrote a sequel to that biography called
The End and the Beginning. Covering the last six years of the pope’s life, this book sheds new light on John Paul’s fight against communism and explores his vast legacy.
Weigel is one of the hundreds of thousands of people who will be attending John Paul's beatification ceremony in St Peter's Square on May 1st and Susy Hodges asked him to share with us his thoughts about this keenly awaited event.
He says of the beatification:
"I think this is a moment where the official judgement of the leadership of the Catholic Church is confirming the judgement of the people of the Church which was registered at the Pope's funeral in 2005, namely that this was a life of heroic virtue, this was a man who can and should be held up as an example.."
When it comes to Pope John Paul's place in the history books of the late 20th century, Weigel has no doubts about his vital role: "it's now being widely recognised that Pope John Paul was the pivotal figure in the collapse of communism in central and eastern Europe."
Weigel says on a spiritual level, Pope John Paul "made the Christian proposal interesting and dynamic in a world that had imagined that it had outgrown the need for religious faith of any sort and that's an extraordinary accomplishment."
He also says his appeal stretched far beyond the boundaries of the Catholic Church: "I think his beatification is going to be an ecumenical and inter-religious affair, not simply a Catholic affair."
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 21/04/2011 15:41]