Comic book on pope to be distributed at World Youth Day

PEOPLE attending the World Youth Day (WYD) gathering in Spain in August will get to see Pope Benedict in a new role as a hero in a manga comic book called Habemus Papam.

The new book is being specially produced for the WYD with over 300,000 copies being printed and distributed to participants. Susy Hodges spoke to the publisher of the manga book and also to the student who wrote the story that speaks about Pope Benedict’s life and his message.

Publisher Jonathan Lin says the 32-page comic book “is a short story that tells the drama of the Pope leading up to his election at the conclave in 2005” and then goes on to talk about the previous two World Youth Day events and finally ends “with his message for the upcoming WYD in Spain.”

Asked about the feedback so far from young people who’ve seen the advance copies, Lin says it’s been “pretty good and what I notice is that a lot of them (young people) did not know that Pope Benedict did not want to be pope which took them by surprise.”

Report from Vatican Radio