FAMOUS FIGURES WRITE ABOUT THE POPE

Vatican City, 12 April 2012 (VIS) - On Monday 9 April, Edmund Stoiber, former minister-president of Bavaria, Germany, presented the Holy Father with a German-language book entitled: "Benedikt XVI - Prominente uber den Papst" in which twenty leading figures in the Church and from the worlds of politics, culture, the economy and sport have written their individual view on the person and works of the current Pontiff. Contributors include Cardinal Kurt Koch; Cardinal Joachim Meisner; German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble, Olympic sportswoman Maria Hofl-Riesch, and footballer Franz Beckenbauer.

The book, which is being published by "Media Maria Verlag", has a prologue by Msgr. Georg Gaenswein, private secretary to Benedict XVI, who also contributed one of the articles. In his preface Msgr. Gaenswein notes that "the opinions are not only those of Catholics but also of Evangelical Christians. They do not hide their Christian faith and are not afraid to give voice to a number of 'desiderata'. Each contribution is like the tile of a mosaic which helps to create a chromatic image in which the essential aspects of Benedict XVI's pontificate become clear".