Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI welcomed Wednesday the Vatican newspaper's first edition in the Malayalam language, a publication aimed mainly at Catholics from India's Kerala State. L'Osservatore Romano's Malayalam edition "is a highly significant event in the life of the Church in India," Benedict said in a message issued by the Vatican.
"It will keep the over six million Catholics in Kerala State fully informed about the ministry of the Pope and the work of the Holy See," Benedict said.
The newspaper is a translation in Malayalam of L'Osservatore Romano's weekly English language edition, which is already available in India where it is published by Carmel International Publishing House.
The first copies of the Malayalam edition will be distributed from July 3 at parishes in Kerala and elsewhere in India, L'Osservatore Romano said.
The Malayalam edition marks the first time the Vatican's newspaper is published in a non-European language.
Besides the daily version in Italian, weekly editions of L'Osservatore Romano currently exist in Italian, English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German and Polish.
