Competing for space on the newsstands with siliconed starlets, muscular football players and the cats of Rome later this month will be a new calendar: 14 full-colour photographs of the Pope in leisurely poses.

All were taken in a day’s shooting at Castel Gandolfo, the Pope’s magnificent summer residence in the hills east of Rome.

This is not the first papal calendar — those illustrated with photographs of the late John Paul II during his travels or audiences were popular — but it is believed to be the first time that a pope has agreed to pose for one.

Benedict XVI, who succeeded John Paul II last year, has already earned a reputation for stylishness and attention to the aesthetic details of papal attire. There are sunlit views of the pontiff, dressed in a long white habit, reading a book (we are informed it is a German edition of the Epistles of St Paul), and in his library perusing the many ancient volumes.

He is shown strolling through Gandolfo’s splendid gardens, his white-clad figure artfully reflected in a pool with water lilies, distractedly toying with the water sprinkling from a fountain, and serenely enjoying the vista of Lake Albano in the valley below. One photograph portrays him in the chapel of the castle, in prayer.

The calendar, called Together: A Year with the Pope, is published by Famiglia Christiana, a Catholic weekly.

It costs €5, and for each copy sold €1 will go to the Nazareth Children’s Town in Mbare, Rwanda. According to Famiglia Cristiana, the rest will cover production and distribution costs. A first run of a million copies is scheduled, with the possibility of reprints.

The photographs were taken by Famiglia Christiana’s top photographer, Giancarlo Giuliani. “His Holiness was very affable and very co-operative,” Giuliani said. “Perhaps a little awkward at times, without the showmanship, if one may use the term, of John Paul II. But always very helpful and co-operative.”

The money from the calendar will be used to build a children’s hospital at Mbare. According to Famiglia Cristiana, the Pope himself chose the project.

Further evidence of his attention to Africa is his purchase this week of the first bond of a $1 million issue by the International Fund for Immunisation to finance vaccinations of a million children in Africa.

Vatican-watchers agree that he is less of a “media man” than his predecessor, but the decision to pose for informal portraits for a calendar may indicate that he is learning fast.

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