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VATICAN CITY, Jun 1, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Italy's National Theatre Agency wants the late Pope John Paul II to be named as the patron saint of theater.
"We would be so happy to have him as our patron saint," the group's chairman, Giuseppe Ferrazza, told the Catholic TV channel Telepace Thursday. "Theater needs a protector because it has become too atheist."
The National Theatre Agency, also known as ETI, was founded in 1942 to promote theater in Italy and abroad, ANSA reported. The group recently published a book about the late pope's writings for and about the theater.
The pontiff was a poet, playwright and actor as a young man in Poland. His successor, Pope Benedict XVI, has advocated a fast track to sainthood for the late pope.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
