German 'Sun' publishes Pope Bible
Pastor Dale Morgan
German 'Sun' publishes Pope Bible
The Gospel according to Pope Benedict
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Erik Kirschbaum in Berlin
Monday July 9, 2007
The Guardian
Germany's best-selling newspaper, a tabloid which often publishes
pictures of naked women on its front page, has joined forces with the
Pope to produce a "Benedict bible".
The Bild newspaper will launch the special edition bible today in the
small Bavarian town where Pope Benedict was born. It includes 16 pages
of text and pictures from the pontiff about his election, on reading the
Bible and on his choice of name.
"He's the first German pope in over 500 years," Bild editor Kai Diekmann
told Reuters. "Germany has a special relationship with Benedict. His
election gave the whole country a lift."
Diekmann presented a copy of the bible, with Pope Benedict's seal and
bound in white leather, to him last week. Bild, which has a readership
of 12 million, has backed four special bible projects that have sold
600,000 copies in the last three years. "Our readers take a huge
interest in religious and spiritual matters, and not just since Joseph
Ratzinger became Pope," Diekmann said.
Diekmann insisted there was nothing inconsistent about the paper's often
racy contents and its interest in religion.
"Why shouldn't the beauty of God's creation and religious matters appear
in the same paper? Religion is not prudish."