Pope Benedict, speaking a day after an Italian commission blamed the ex-Soviet Union for a plot to kill his predecessor, on Friday thanked Vatican Radio for beaming the truth to communist nations during the Cold War.
Benedict made his comments during a visit to the studios of Vatican Radio, several blocks away from the Vatican, to mark the 75th anniversary of the broadcaster known as "The Pope's Radio."
The Pope spent about 90 minutes visiting the studios and staff at the radio, which broadcasts religious, news and cultural programmes in some 45 languages around the world.
In an address to staff, he noted that Vatican Radio increased its transmissions and added new languages "when communism extended its dominion over various nations of central and eastern Europe and other parts of the earth ..."
He said this had helped "Christian communities oppressed by totalitarian regimes receive the solidarity and closeness of the pope and the universal Church."
On Thursday an Italian parliamentary report said leaders of the former Soviet Union were behind the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in 1981.
The report said the Soviet leaders "took the initiative to eliminate" the late Polish pope because they saw his support of freedom in his homeland as a threat to the entire East Bloc.
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