VATICAN CITY, DEC. 20, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI directed a «cordial greeting» to the staff of the Vatican’s daily newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, after the recitation of the Angelus today.
On Sundays and Wednesdays during the Christmas season the newspaper will set up a newsstand in St. Peter’s Square, where it will be possible to buy the newspaper together with small picture of the Nativity.
«I wish this initiative well,» the Pontiff said, noting the project will not only make the Vatican’s daily newspaper readily available to pilgrims, but that it will «also help to build a school in Democratic Republic of the Congo.»
In its Sunday edition, L’Osservatore Romano announced that its international distribution will increase, as the Spanish daily La Razon will print and distribute it as an insert in its Sunday paper, beginning Dec. 27.
«The 200,000 copies of the Sunday edition that will be printed in Spanish will join those already printed in the Vatican, Argentina, Mexico and Perù,» the paper said.
This initiative is similar to that launched in 2008 with the Italian daily L’Eco di Bergamo, which is distributed every Sunday together with a copy of L’Osservatore. It was the first time that such an agreement was reached with a newspaper with national circulation.
La Razón also made the announcement, explaining that the weekly distribution of L’Osservatore, in full color, will not have an additional cost to the readers.
In statements published by La Razón, the director of L’Osservatore Romano, Giovanni Maria Vian, said that «it is important» to have reached this agreement in Spain, which is «a country of great Catholic tradition that is undergoing, like many other western countries in recent times, a major process of secularization.»
