by Matt Barr

The clickwheel of Christ on Earth

Via Doug, memory jogged by E.M.Z. this morning, we see that Benedict XVI has an iPod.

A group of Vatican Radio employees gave Pope Benedict XVI a brand new iPod nano loaded with special Vatican Radio programming and classical music.

To honor the pope's first visit to the radio's broadcasting headquarters, the radio's technical staff decided the pencil-thin, state-of-the-art audio player would make the perfect gift....

The pope's new 2-gigabyte digital audio player already was loaded with a sampling of the radio's programming in English, Italian and German and musical compositions by Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Frederic Chopin, Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky and Igor Stravinsky. The stainless steel back was engraved with the words "To His Holiness, Benedict XVI" in Italian.

I'm a Napster To Go person with a Creative Zen, but I understand you can give iTunes gift certificates via e-mail. The Pope's address is benedictxvi -at- vatican -dot- va. He loves him his Mozart especially.

If I can come up with 12 songs, my next radio.blog playlist will be songs I would put on the Pope's iPod. Please do help me out with suggestions in the comments. One is easy, if it would have been more appropriate for his predecessor: Holy Mother by Eric Clapton. It's helpful if I already have it (though how would you know. Right).

(No, the Pope wouldn't like the kind of music I would put on his iPod, but I'm not really going to give the Pope an iPod. He already has one!)

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