Celebrations are under way in Vienna for the 70^th birthday of the Catholic news agency of the Austrian Church, “Kathpress”. First founded in 1946 as “Katholische Pressezentrale” at the initiative of Viennese prelate Jakob Fried to give news about the Viennese archdiocese only, it was officially renamed Kathpress on February 7^th, 1947. As early as 1951, the agency’s news covered all of Austria, and Österreichische Bischofskonferenz took over the management and editing of Kathpress. To coincide with the opening of the Second Vatican Council, a branch – Centrum informationis Catholicum – was opened in Rome and shared with the Catholic German, Belgian, Swiss and Dutch news agencies. 1997 marked a turning point, when the new editor in chief, Erich Leitenberger, took over and developed initiatives that embraced the new media. The current editor in chief, Paul Wuthe, remarkably boosted the development of the online news website and interactions with other media, partly spurred by the publisher, card. Christoph Schönborn, archbishop of Vienna and president of the Bishops Conference. Today, www.kathpress.at covers Catholic news everywhere. The official celebration will be held at the Forum Raiffeisen in Vienna, tonight, and father Federico Lombardi, current president of the board of governors of the “Joseph Ratzinger – Benedict XVI” Foundation, will be there too.