It's very frustrating when one sees interesting stories cited from L'Osservatore Romano which are not among those that the OR itself chooses to post online. In the Dec. 11 issue, it was the story about the 'white blackbird' that caught the eye of Benedict XVI - and was eventually caught on camera by Mons. Xuereb, one of the Pope's secretaries. Lella carried the story and at least one photo of the bird on her blog. And from the Dec. 12 issue, this story retold in Petrus.
Al-Jazeera is filming a TV documentary
on the Church and the Pope to be aired next June
VATICAN CITY, Dec. 11 - The Arab television outlet Al-Jazeera will air a documentary on the Church and the Pope next June, according to one of their journalists who has started filming at the Vatican.
Mohamed Kanawi told
L'Osservatore Romano that the purpose was "to make the Arab and Muslim world learn about a universal reality like the Catholic Church", and in particular, the figure of the Pope "who is both a spiritual leader and a chief of State".
Earlier, Kenawi filmed a 20-minute-long interview with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the first one done by Arab TV with a high-ranking Catholic prelate.
L'Osservatore says the whole Al-Jazeera project was originally presented to and eventually developed with the Pontifical Council on Social Communications under Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli.
The documentary will also include an interview with Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialog; Mons. Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Mons. Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life; and Archbishop Celli himself.
Kenawi said he had been "very impressed by the positive welcome that our initiative received at the Vatican".
In the interview Bertone gave Kenawi, the Secretary of State underscored the openness of the Holy See to dialog with other religions, particularly Islam, and called for peaceful coexistence among Muslims and Christians, saying that the Catholic Church defends 'the rights of all men".
There was an item about Bertone's interview earlier this week that I 'marked' for translation but didn't get around to - I have to check it back.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 15/12/2009 18:58]