Pope Benedict XVI receives Czech pilgrims in Vatican
Baku, November 10 (AZERTAC). Pope Benedict XVI met participants in the Czech national pilgrimage to the Vatican at his regular audience today, he thanked them in Czech for their warm welcome during his visit to the Czech Republic in September 2009 and gave the country a special blessing, Irena Sargankova told CTK.
Czech bishops gave the Pope an exclusive copy of the handmade "Golden Bible" with facsimiles of medieval illuminations, Irena Sargankova, spokeswoman for the Czech Bishops` Conference, said.
The tree-day programme of the Czech pilgrimage culminated with the Pope´s audience.
He received some 1300 Czech pilgrims in the Paul VI Hall in St Peter´s Basilica along with a group from na Italian diocese.
The Czech group welcomed the Pope with an applause shouting "Thank You, Holy Father." Voluntary Czech church musicians then sang two songs for him.
Pope Benedict XVI addressed Czech pilgrims in their mother tongue.
"I cordially welcome you, pilgrims from the Czech Republic, who have come in great numbers to repay my visit that I with pleasure paid to your country last year. (...) I have kept a nice and grateful memory of my pleasant trip to your beautiful country. (...) With all my heart I am giving you a special Apostolic blessing that I have extended to your families and the whole homeland of yours," said Pope Benedict XVI.
Representatives of the Czech Bishops´ Conference along with a government delegation, headed by Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg and including President Vaclav Klaus´s wife Livia, and all pilgrims thanked the Pope for his visit in 2009.
Czech bishops brought to the Pope a copy of the unique 1070-page "Golden Bible" handmade by chrysotype (gold print) technique with 259 illustrations.
The text consists of the Old and New Testaments in the version of the Jerusalem Bible. The text of the Bible was translated by Frantisek and Dagmar Halas who worked on it for 30 years.
Today´s programme of the national pilgrimage continues in the afternoon with a votive service in St Peter´s Basilica, celebrated by Prague Archbishop Dominik Duka, primate of the Czech Catholic Church.
On Tuesday, the first day of the national pilgrimage, the pilgrims attended a mass in the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica celebrated by Olomouc (north Moravia) Archbishop Jan Graubner.
Jiri Sedlacek, director of the Velehrad pilgrim´s house in Rome, then unveiled a bust of Cardinal Josef Beran (1888-1969), who was persecuted and interned by the communist regime and later he fled to Rome where he died. The artifact was made by sculptor Marie Uchytilova.
Duka and Graubner then gave birthday presents to Cardinal Giovanni Coppa, the first Apostolic Nuncio to the Czech Republic, who turned 85 on November 9, and Livia Klausova who celebrated her 67th birthday today.
The national pilgrimage will end on Thursday morning with a mass in the Basilica of St. John Lateran.
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