| Vatican cITY(Agenzia Fides) - “The pole star is always Christ celebrated as the sacrificial lamb, the living stone, the suffering servant of the Lord sung by Isaiah, the shepherd and custodian oF our souls” Mgr. Gianfranco Ravasi writes in an article published on 28 October in the Vatican daily Osservatore Romano with regard to a modern edition of a 3rd century Egyptian papyrus «Bodmer VIII», known to scholars as P72: the oldest extant exemplar of the two New Testament Letters of Saint Peter. The edition was prepared by the Vatican Library and “Testimónio Compañía Editorial” publishers in Madrid. Paul VI received as a gift the priceless document in 1969 and donated it to the Vatican Library on 28 June 1969. With this modern edition anyone may add to their library this perfect papyrus copy of that early Christian document, including the Cardinals of the Church who travelled to Rome to take part in celebrations for the 25th year of the Pontificate. In fact each Cardinal received a copy of the edition as a personal gift from Pope John Paul II. “These two Letters of Peter re-propose with vigour «all the central themes of Christian preaching and especially the centre who is Christ himself, Crucified and Risen». What is more, these pages burnished by time and entrusted to a material so remote and different to our electronic pages today, appear still to throb with life.” (S.L.) (Fides Service 28/10/2003 – lines 16; words 242)
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