Vatican
City, 4 January 2013
(VIS) - The Prefecture of the Papal Household today published a
communique in which it reported that during 2012, 2,351,200 faithful
participated in the various encounters with Benedict XVI: general
audiences (447,000), private audiences (146,800), liturgical
celebrations (501,400), Angelus and Regina Coeli (1,256,000). These
data refer exclusively to activities which took place within the
Vatican and at Castel Gandolfo, and do not include other events
during which hundreds of thousands of faithful have gathered around
the Pope, such as apostolic visits to Mexico and Cuba last spring,
and to Lebanon in September. During the past year the Pope also made
several visits within Italy, for instance to Arezzo-San Sepolcro,
Emilia Romagna, Loreto, and the World Meeting of Families in Milan in
June.
The
Prefecture of the Papal Household emphasises that these are
approximate data calculated on the basis of requests to participate
in events and invitations issued by the Prefecture. Additionally, an
estimate has been given for the number of attendees at the Angelus
and the major celebrations in St. Peter's Square.
In
total, according to the data provided by the Prefecture of the Papal
Household, 20,544,970 people have attended papal events with Benedict
XVI.