Czech Liquid Gold a Blessed Gift to Vatican to Honor John Paul II

The ties that bind brothers can sometimes be surprising.

Did you know that Polish-born Pope John Paul II was a fan of Czech beer?

In a golden act of solidarity, the Czech Republic’s most prized brewer shared a blessed brew of Pilsner Urquell beer with the Vatican to commemorate the beatification of  the pontiff who died in 2005.

Hundreds of thousands of people from all corners of the globe flocked to Vatican City to be part of the ceremony on May 1 that marked John Paul II’s beatification, the third of four steps towards canonization, or being declared a saint.

“For these solemn moments…Czech brewery Plzensky Prazdroj, together with the citizens of Plzen sent a special Easter batch of their beer to the Vatican,” the brewery said.

While still in the brewery, this batch of the eponymous golden lager that gave the world the style now simply called pilsner, or pils, was blessed on March 11 by Frantisek Radkovsky, the bishop of Plzen.

“When John Paul II saw me the other day, he promptly remarked that I was the bishop from Plzen, where we have such good beer,” the bishop said, recalling a past meeting with the Holy See, according to the statement.

Plzensky Prazdroj delivered 2011 bottles of the pilsner beer to Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, President of the Governorate of Vatican City State, early last week.

The beer was brewed throughout Lent and was to be served at official events at the Vatican connected with the beatification.

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