VATICAN CITY, NOV. 19, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The Vatican opened a third bookstore Tuesday, with a ceremony presided over by the Pope’s secretary of state.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone inaugurated the store, situated in the Pius XII Plaza between the end of Via della Conciliazione and St. Peter’s Square. The store is dedicated to Benedict XVI.
It offers both a stamp and a medal collection, including a new stamp printed for the occasion of the opening.
The store also has a branch of L’Osservatore Romano’s photos, so that pilgrims seeking images from papal audiences or other events no longer need to visit the Vatican daily’s offices beyond the Santa Ana gate.
«This new bookstore,» Cardinal Bertone said, «is offered as a place of evangelization and authentic human promotion, providing texts and publications that respond to the expectations, demands and challenges of contemporary culture. This is what makes the required economic and human investment worth it — with the sole intention of rendering an eminently pastoral service, in close and convinced collaboration with the ministry of Peter.»
In this regard, the opening date had symbolic significance, falling on the feast of the dedication of the Basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul.
The cardinal said the bookstore can serve as a «sounding board for the divine Word — effective, creative and saving» so as to «amplify the magisterium of Peter’s successor and the bishops» and to give voice to «Catholic culture so that it can influence the fabric of today’s humanity.»
«In constructing cathedrals and basilicas, our fathers wanted to transmit the faith they had received,» Cardinal Bertone added. «Today, along with places of worship, it is good that places to spread the truth are also developed, spaces of seeking and going deeper into the Christian message incarnated in society so that it is spread and penetrates the world.»
