For the first time ever the Vatican newspaper will now provide a daily news service in English.
Up until now L’Osservatore Romano has only printed a weekly English
edition. Its daily edition meanwhile has always been in Italian.
But now
the Vatican’s semi-official paper has launched a new website aimed at
providing constantly updated coverage in both English and Italian.
The newspaper says it eventually wants to expand the languages
available online to include German, Spanish, French, Polish and
Portuguese.
However, these offerings would only be updated weekly.
L’Osservatore Romano – “The Roman Observer” in English - is currently
marking its 150th year of existence.
It was launched in 1861 to defend
the Papal States against the Italian political radical Giuseppe
Garibaldi in his bid to subsume the Pope’s territories into a newly
unified Italy.
The paper’s ownership was independent of the Church up
until 1885 when the Vatican acquired it during the reign of Pope Leo
XIII.
The new website is currently free but will require a subscription by the end of August.