Catholic Communications Office receives 500 messages to online book of condolence for the late Pope John Paul II

07 Apr 2005

PRESS RELEASE

7 APRIL 2005

CATHOLIC COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE RECEIVES 500 MESSAGES TO

ONLINE BOOK OF CONDOLENCE FOR THE LATE POPE JOHN PAUL II

 
The online book of condolence for the late Pope John Paul II which went live
as part of the Catholic Communications Office’s (CCO) web feature to mark
the death of Pope John Paul II has received more than 500 messages to date.
 
Commenting on the volume of messages received, Ms Brenda Drumm, Communications
Officer with the CCO said: “We began receiving messages of condolence within
a half an hour of the web feature going live. Messages have come in from all
over Ireland and from many other parts of the world such as: Italy, Singapore,
Canada, Switzerland, America, Scotland, England and India.

“The messages of condolence are from children as young as 12, from families,
from businesses, from priests and religious, from people who met the Pope and
from many of those who attended the venues he visited during his visit to
Ireland in 1979. We’ve even had a message of condolence from one of the
helicopter pilots who flew Pope John Paul II around Ireland during the papal
visit in 1979.”

Ms Drumm continued: “The Pope in his message for World Communications Day 2002
identified the net as an opportunity for evangelisation and wrote of our
“summons to the great adventure of using its potential to proclaim the Gospel
message”.  The Pope said “The Internet causes billions of images to appear on
millions of computer monitors around the planet. From this galaxy of sight
and sound will the face of Christ emerge and the voice of Christ be heard”.
The Pope constantly encouraged us to ‘put out into the deep of the net’, so
we felt it appropriate that people should be able to use the internet to
convey their messages of condolence on the death of the Holy Father.”

The online book of condolence can be viewed at www.catholiccommunications.ie
and those wishing to send a message can email [email protected]  
 
ends
7th April 2005

Further information:
Martin Long Director of Communications (086 172 7678)
Brenda Drumm Communications Officer (087 233 7797)