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E-mailPope Benedict -- through a journalist's eyes
Heinz Joachim Fischer -- author of the biography, "Pope Benedict XVI: A Personal Portrait" -- will be the 54th speaker in the Threshold lecture series on Oct. 5 at the college in Unity Township, near Latrobe.
Fischer's biography of Pope Benedict was inspired by his 30-year personal and professional relationship with Joseph Ratzinger.
A graduate of the Papal University Gregoriana, where he studied philosophy and theology, Fischer studied and met with Ratzinger over three decades as the Vatican correspondent for articles on the prominent prelate in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and other major media outlets.
He offers an insider's perspective on Ratzinger's life and ministry, from his early days in Germany to his meteoric rise as Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, confidant of Pope John Paul II and the first new pope of the 21st Century.
A resident of Rome, Fischer has published numerous books on John Paul II, the papal conclave and the Vatican as well as studies on Rome and Italy. He will be introduced by St. Vincent Archabbot and Chancellor Douglas R. Nowicki.
Fischer's talk begins at 8 p.m. in the Robert S. Carey Student Center's Performing Arts Center. Admission is free, but by ticket only. Requests for reservations may be made by calling the Threshold Box Office from 1 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday at 724-537-4556 or by e-mail at threshold@stvincent.edu.
St. Vincent College established the Threshold Series in 1981 with a grant from the Kennametal Foundation of Latrobe. Previous speakers have included Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Alex Haley, Ralph Nader, Robert Jarvik and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
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