Beauty and the Beatification

Friday, April 29th, 2011

Momentum is building in Rome for the beatification of John Paul II, however the wedding of Prince William to Catherine Middleton is gaining the attention of the world’s media.

John Paul II is considered a modern Catholic hero, and the Vatican is working overtime to make the beatification go viral and embarking on a social media strategy unseen before by the Vatican. A website, a Facebook page and Twitter account all part of mix.

The Vatican even intends to broadcast the beatification in 3D, however it is having difficulty getting traction from the traditional media; TV networks are not as interested in John Paul as they once were.

According to one event planner, behind closed doors, once-optimistic Vatican officials who were planning for 1 -2 million visitors told city event planners in Rome to prepare for as few as 150,000 people and only a handful of dignitaries.

“There won’t be a lot of space to cover the beatification because all the attention is going to be on England.” said Sabina Castelfranco, an Italy-based reporter with CBS TV.

Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the church official who has advanced the case for the late pope’s sainthood, bemoaned the attention the royal wedding is getting, adding, “In today’s world, gossip makes more news and gathers more of an audience.”

Oder said that Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the archbishop of Krakow, who was John Paul II’s private secretary, insisted the beatification should coincide with the May 1 Labor Day weekend, giving pilgrims from the late pontiff’s native Poland enough time to travel to Rome.

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