Vatican City, 18 March 2014 (VIS) – A
press conference was held in the Holy See Press Office this morning
to present the Holy See's participation as a guest of honour at the
27th Turin International Book Fair, to take place from 8 to 12 May.
The speakers were: Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the
Pontifical Council for Culture; Rolando Picchioni, president of the
Foundation for Books, Music and Cultural Activities; Fr. Giuseppe
Costa, S.D.B., director of Libreria Editrice Vaticana, and Ernesto
Ferrero, editorial director of the Turin International Book Fair.
The Holy See will be represented by a
stand in the form of a dome made out of books, explained Cardinal
Ravasi. The plan incorporates the design for the new Vatican Basilica
by Donato Bramante; the 500th anniversary of whose death is
commemorated on 11 April.
The stand will be located in the third
pavilion of the complex, and will host cultural and artistic events
including: on Wednesday 7, a pre-inauguration concert performed by
the choir of the Sistine Chapel; on Friday 9, a cultural debate
between Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi and a distinguished non-believer;
and on Saturday 10, the presentation by Cardinal Secretary of State
Pietro Parolin of a new book dedicated to the Holy Father and a
dialogue on the first year of Pope Francis' pontificate.
The Turin International Book Fair
opened its doors for the first time in 2001, and each year it invites
a different country to attend as a guest of honour. The participation
of the Holy See this year, said Rolando Picchioni, “not only
constitutes an out of the ordinary presence, but in a certain way has
also shaped the spirit according to which the most important debates
and events are structured. … Its most relevant contribution is the
profoundly international and universal character of its constitutive
and spiritual nature, and the marvellous variety of ways in which the
message and teaching of the Church is translated into works of
thought, reflection and literary and artistic creation”.
According to Ernesto Ferrero, the
Vatican participation offers “a substantial contribution to the
reflection that the Book Fair has promoted for years, posing
questions on the current meaning of concepts such as Time, History,
Beauty, Creativity, the 'I', the 'Other', by means of mutations,
impetuous but disordered, not managed or directed. But it is
precisely this function of governance that we must ask of books”.