Vatican City, Mar 6, 2005 / 22:00 pm
The Vatican has announced that e-mail’s for Pope John Paul II have been pouring in from around the world ever since the Vatican's web site posted an address in each of its six language versions (john_paul_ii@vatican.va).
Well-wishing letters in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and German have been arriving daily for the Holy Father, hoping for a speedy recovery and prompt return to his ministry as Pope and Bishop of Rome.
The Vatican reported that from March 1st, to noon of March 3rd, over 20,000 e-mail messages have arrived for the Pope.
About 10,000 of those messages have been in English, 6,077 in Spanish, 2,012 in Portuguese, 1,134 in Italian, 850 in German and 800 in French. Numerous e-mails in the Pope's native Polish also arrive daily.
While the Vatican pointed out that these numbers are only for a two-day period, they represent just a portion of mail arriving for the Holy Father, including additional e-mails since March 3rd, as well as letters and faxes that arrive at the Secretariat of State and other offices of the Roman Curia.
The Vatican also posted the e-mail address for the Holy Father on the occasion of his 25th anniversary as Pontiff in October 2003.
The Vatican noted that letters arrive from doctors, heads of volunteer organizations, housewives and mothers, students, religious congregations, hospital employees, pastors and parishioners.