Vatican releases calendar with papal photos

Published: 2007-10-04

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican's photo service released its first official wall calendar featuring images of Pope Benedict XVI. The new calendar showing the pope during his July 2007 Alpine vacation in Lorenzago di Cadore in Italy's northern Veneto region is now available in bookshops and newsstands near the Vatican and can be ordered online. The 2008 Italian calendar sells for 5 euros (US$7) and can be ordered by e-mailing a request to photo@ossrom.va. Salesian Father Giuseppe Colombara, head of the photo service, told Catholic News Service Oct. 4 that only 2,000 to 3,000 copies of the calendar will be printed, but that they can be sent anywhere in the world. The large calendar pictures, measuring 16.5 inches by 12 inches, are printed on high-quality paper making them suitable for framing, he said in an Oct. 3 press release. Pictures include the pope posing in front of an Alpine lake, praying the rosary while strolling through a pine forest, visiting a small Marian shrine, greeting local residents and petting a friendly police dog.

Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .