ANNUAL PLENARY OF THE PONTIFICAL BIBLICAL COMMISSION

Vatican City, 12 April 2012 (VIS) - The annual plenary session of the Pontifical Biblical Commission is to be held from 16 to 20 April at the "Domus Sanctae Marthae" inside Vatican City under the presidency of Cardinal William Joseph Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, according to a communique made public today.

The meeting will be chaired by Fr. Klemens Stock S.J., secretary general of the commission, and the participants will continue their reflections on the theme of "Inspiration and Truth in the Bible". As a first stage in its examination of this subject, the commission has chosen to focus attention on the way in which inspiration and truth appear in Sacred Scripture. On the basis of their individual competencies, each participant will present a report which will then be discussed by the assembly as a whole.

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".