Holy Father Wins Italian Science Prize
ANSA, Dec. 5 — Pope John Paul II was awarded the 2004 Erice Science Prize for Peace at the Vatican Dec. 7 by the Ettore Majorana Science and Culture Center.
The citation praised the Holy Father for “being the greatest friend of the scientific community, for having the courage to defend science while differentiating it from its applications, for placing science on the same pedestal as the values of faith and for creating the foundation for a great alliance between science and faith.”
Previous honorees have included Linus Pauling and Edward Teller.
The Pope said the cash prize would be donated to students from the developing world and called for cooperation of “the international scientific community, public institutions and people of good will” in order to “assure humanity a future of hope and peace.”
Poles Embrace Papal Comic Book
AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS, Dec. 3 — A comic book explaining how Karol Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II is selling briskly in the Pope's native land, Poland.
The 80-page book, written by Louis-Bernard Koch and illustrated by Dominique Bar and Guy Lehideux, was first published in France and includes a preface from Cardinal Paul Paupard, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Culture.
Jolanta Kochniarczyk of the Polish publisher Bialy Kruk of Krakow praised the book as “a biography that reads, well, like a good novel — it's not just dry facts.” Yet she worried it might be regarded as vulgar, even impertinent. However, she said, “We have not met with any criticism. Young readers who were given the book were delighted.”
John Paul Prays for Filipino Victims
, Dec. 5 — Pope John Paul II has expressed sympathy for the people of the Philippines, ravaged by four typhoons that killed more than 1,000 people and left 250,000 homeless.
The Holy Father's message to Archbishop Antonio Franco, released Dec. 5, reads in part, “With prayers for the victims and their families, (the Pope) asks almighty God to grant peace and consolation to the homeless, the suffering and those involved in the difficult task of relief.”
Donations to alleviate the suffering can be made to Caritas Internationalis at www.caritas.org. The Pope himself donated $25,000.
British Celebrate Adrian IV
, Dec. 4 — The primate of England, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster, presided over a Dec. 4 evensong service at St. Albans Abbey in Hertfordshire on the 850th anniversary of the election of Nicholas Breakspear as Pope Adrian IV, the sole English pontiff.
Born circa 1100, Adrian was educated at St. Albans and became an Augustinian canon in France, a papal diplomat and cardinal bishop of Albano, near Rome, before his elevation in 1154, upon the death of Eugenius III. Adrian served fewer than five years and is best remembered for his alleged donation of Ireland to Henry II of England.