Read to Suceed, Bible Style

When I saw this odd picture in the Los Angeles Times of the huge head of Pope Benedict XVI projected up onto a screen to make it look like he was reading out of the Bible, I wondered what shenanigans he was up to this time.

Turns out that he was leading a Bible reading marathon that will cover the whole book in seven days. While reading the Bible front to back seems to fit with Pope Benedict's old school, traditional personality, I became more interested the more I read about the event.

"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." --LAT

It was cool to read that actor Roberto Benini (Life is Beautiful) ended the first segment and Andrea Bocelli sang between readings. The Pope's mission was to make the Bible accessible and show that "the Bible belongs to everyone without any discrimination or cultural or ideological barrier." And in case you were wondering why the Pope's head appeared on the big screen, he did not come for security reasons.

Although I do not completely agree with all of his rules or philsophies, I thought this was a unique and good idea. I must say that Pope Benedict is growing on me more and more.