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The Bible with Benedict, Benigni, Bocelli

E-mail|Link|Comments (0) Posted by Michael Paulson October 6, 2008 04:51 PM

Italian television this week is broadcasting a reading of the Bible, from beginning to end, over 139 hours. The event began last night with Pope Benedict XVI, and includes the actor Roberto Benigni (reading) and the tenor Andrea Bocelli (singing).

The Los Angeles Times reports:

"The pontiff launched a marathon reading of the Bible, from Genesis to Apocalypse, broadcast live on state television. It will last seven days and six nights. The roster of about 1,300 readers features former Italian presidents, current Cabinet ministers, soccer stars, foreign diplomats, cardinals, intellectuals, actors and opera singers as well as ordinary citizens. The Vatican invited a multi-faith, multiethnic cross section of participants to the event in the Holy Cross in Jerusalem Basilica here. They include Orthodox clergymen; an Algerian female writer and five other Muslims; and the Israeli ambassador to the Vatican, along with a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp and 14 other Jewish readers."

Here's Benedict reading the first pages of Genesis, in Italian:

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Michael Paulson covers religion for The Boston Globe. He shared in the Pulitzer Prize in 2003, won the Mike Berger, Templeton and Supple awards in 2008, and is a four-time winner of the Wilbur Award.
E-mail mpaulson@globe.com.

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