Vatican disappointed by lack of enthusiasm for beatification

After the over-the-top coverage of the pope’s visit to the UK last year, the BBC has surprised the Vatican by declining to give wall-to-wall coverage of the “beatification” ceremony of the previous pontiff, John Paul II. The ceremony, on May 1, will only be covered by BBC News and Radio 4’s Sunday programme, which will broadcast its edition from St Peter’s Square before the service begins.

Similarly, Sky News — which also gave hours of ludicrously fawning coverage to the pope’s visit — said that it would have a crew present in Rome, but the amount of time it gave to the event would depend on other news that day.

There is little interest among Catholics for the “beatification” ceremony. The Vatican has downsized the event from its original prediction of 2.5 million attendees to 300,000.

Even Polish tour operators are reporting problems finding customers interested in going to the Vatican, for what is regarded as a major step in the canonisation process of the Polish Pope.

“We still have many vacancies,” says Agata Mueck from Orlando Travel, quoted in the Metro daily, which offers a 6-day trip to Rome in an air-conditioned coach.

“Nobody has contacted us yet about the trip to the Vatican. We’ll wait until 5 April and if we don’t find any clients, we’ll cancel the reservation in a hotel near Rome,” says Artur Krowiak from Barthur.

Churches, which also are also organising beatification trips, have not managed to attract many people, either. Priests from St. James the Apostle Church in the eastern city of Lublin admit that only a half of the coach heading to Rome for a 6-day trip will be filled.