Pope Francis’s Encyclical on Climate Change Now Available as a Free Download at Audible.com
NEWARK, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Audible Studios, a production arm of Audible.com, along with Vatican
Radio and Libreria Editrice Vaticana, today announced the release of Laudato
Si’, Pope Francis’s influential encyclical on climate change and the
environment. The audio, in which Pope Francis calls for renewable fuel
subsidies and efficient energy, is narrated by Philippa Hitchen and Sean
Patrick Lovett and is available as a free download at Audible.com.
The release of the encyclical coincides with Pope Francis’s arrival in
the United States today. He will address the United States Congress and
the United Nations later this week.
“We are glad to provide our customers with the opportunity to listen to
the Pope’s encyclical on the environment,” said Audible EVP and
Publisher Beth Anderson. “Climate change is an issue that impacts
everyone in the world, and this offering is a convenient and
environmentally friendly way for our listeners to hear this leader’s
perspective on this important topic.”
Because of the global interest in climate change and in Pope Francis,
Audible will carry the Encyclical in English, Spanish, Italian,
Portuguese, German, and French. This is the first time that Audible has
made a single piece of content available free in so many languages.
Among the acclaimed performers who have narrated works of literature for
Audible are Dan Stevens, Jake Gyllenhaal, Kate Winslet and Tim Robbins.
In 2013, Audible Studios won its first Grammy Award, for its production
of Janis Ian’s memoir Society’s Child, and also won the Audie
Award for Audiobook of the Year, for Colin Firth’s performance of Graham
Greene’s The End of the Affair.
Audible, the world’s largest seller and producer of downloadable
audiobooks and other spoken-word content, invented and commercialized
the first digital audio player in 1997, and has since been at the
forefront of the explosively growing audiobook download segment. In
2014, listeners around the world downloaded 1.2 billion hours of audio
from Audible.com outlets; Audible members downloaded an average of more
than 17 books over the course of the year. More than half of current
Audible members are first-time audiobook buyers.
ABOUT AUDIBLE, INC.
Audible, Inc., an Amazon.com,
Inc. subsidiary (NASDAQ:AMZN), is the leading provider of premium
digital spoken audio information and entertainment, offering customers a
new way to enhance and enrich their lives every day. Audible’s mission
is to establish literate listening as a core tool for anyone seeking to
be more productive, better informed, or more thoughtfully entertained.
Audible content includes more than 225,000 audio programs from leading
audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper
publishers, and business information providers. Audible is also the
preeminent provider of spoken-word audio products for Apple’s iTunes
Store.
ABOUT VATICAN RADIO
Vatican Radio is the broadcasting station of the Holy See based in the
Vatican City State.
It is a means of communication and evangelization created to serve the
Pope’s Ministry established by Guglielmo Marconi and inaugurated by Pius
XI on February 12th, 1931.
The mission of Vatican Radio is to proclaim the Christian message
freely, faithfully and efficiently and keep the center of Catholicism in
contact with the different countries of the world by diffusing the voice
and the teachings of the Roman Pontif, informing about the activities of
the Holy See, giving information about the life and the activities of
the Catholic Church in the world and helping the faithful to evaluate
today’s problems in light of the Teachings of the Church.
Vatican Radio broadcasts its programs worldwide in 40 languages. Its
schedule is available on the website www.radiovaticana.va.
ABOUT LIBRERIA EDITRICE VATICANA
The publishing activity of the Holy See is connected to the foundation
of the Vatican Printing Press which dates back to 27 April 1587, during
the pontificate of Pope Sixtus V. It was only in 1926, during the
pontificate of Pius XI, that the old Sales Office was separated from the
Printing Press in order to become a new and autonomous entity. It was
entrusted with the sale of books printed by the Holy See in its own
Press. Over time, little by little, the Bookstore became the Vatican
Publishing House (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, the LEV), and today the
LEV is recognized as the official publishing house of the Holy See, with
its statutes approved in 1991 by the Secretary of State.
A decisive step towards a more qualified editorial role for LEV came
with the election of John Paul II in 1978. From the beginning of this
great pontificate the Vatican Publishing House was assigned the task of
managing the writings of Cardinal Karol Wojtyła (whose works were little
known outside of Poland) in addition to the traditional texts of the
Magisterium and of the Holy See. Thus, in the course of just a few
years, the LEV began to receive numerous inquiries from around the world
seeking permission to publish the works of Cardinal Wojtyła and Pope
John Paul II.
Another important step forward was taken with a Decree of the Secretary
of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, on 31 May 2005. With this decree,
Cardinal Sodano confirmed and made official the arrangement whereby all
rights of authorship with regard to the Holy Father’s texts were
entrusted to the LEV. Later, the management of the copyrights for the
writings of Cardinal Ratzinger, like those of Cardinal Wojtyła, were
also entrusted to the LEV.
Alongside the publication of books—its principle patrimony—the
Publishing House has expanded its role to include developing structures
for their distribution.
In addition to the bookstore in the Braccio di Carlo Magno, in the
colonnade of St Peter’s Basilica—inaugurated in 1983 and dedicated to
John Paul II—two other stores have been opened: The Paul VI
International Bookstore, on the Via di Propaganda Fide; and the Benedict
XVI International Bookstore, located in Piazza Pio XII.
http://www.libreriaeditricevaticana.va
Contacts
Audible.com
Esther Bochner, 973-820-0781
bochnere@audible.com
