The Pope’s latest books and weekly catechesis are to be produced as eBooks. The Vatican is working with Apple to develop new hi-tech means of communicating the works of Pope Benedict XVI to the world, including the electronic or digital eBooks.
“It represents an enormous step on the international stage because, as you know, internet goes beyond space and time,” said Father Giuseppe Costa, the director of the Vatican’s publishing house Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
“The message of the Holy Father will now be received in every part of the world.”
The American technology firm is to work alongside the Vatican to produce eBooks and iTunes tracks (digital video files) of the Pope Benedict’s weekly general audience.
In recent months the pontiff has used his weekly address to explore the theme of prayer in the story of salvation.
His latest volume, Prayer in the New Testament, is already available in print form.
The new eBook format will be accompanied by illustrations from the Vatican’s art collections.
“The illustrations are of great value also in the electronic version as the reader can access the book as they like. They can zoom in and out to examine the images and compare them with the texts for their own personal meditation,” Fr. Costa explained.
Initially the commercial agreement with Apple will only focus on the Pope’s weekly catechesis.
But the Vatican publishing house says that if this initial project proves popular, then more of Pope Benedict XVI’s extensive catalogue of writings could be offered electronically.
The first editions are already available in Italian, and now the U.S. bishops’ conference is now collaborating with the Vatican to bring the same books to the world in English.
New media also featured in a report out this week illustrating that Benedict XVI is not always viewed in a positive light in the new media in Italy.
An Italian company, Reputation Manager, compared the portrayal of Pope Benedict and the Dalai Lama on Italian web world and social media.
Under three headings: personal image, religious life and communication, the study shows that the web, videos and social networks appear to give a “balanced” image of the Dalai Lama, whereas descriptions of the Pope were, “emotional and negative.”
The results showed that almost half of online content relating to the Pope (48.74%) has a negative tone and a prejudicial impact; only 7% of the content is positive though generally lukewarm and lacking enthusiasm; the rest of the content (just under half) is neutral.
In relation to the Dalai Lama the study showed that quarter of the content (26%) is positive and only 8% is negative but not prejudicial, and as the report puts it, “the emotional impact of the words used are generally balanced, both in terms of positive comments and in terms of negative ones."