An institution as old as Gutenberg’s printing press is getting into the latest trend in publishing, eBooks.

The Catholic Church is making its first move into digital publishing by releasing a new series of eBooks in Apple’s App Store. The books were created using Apple’s Fixed Layout format.

AppNewser has more: “The Vatican eBooks, which were formatted by Aptara, are an illustrated series of Pope Benedict’s weekly addresses from March 2006 to the present day. There are 13 eBooks in the series, each focusing on a prominent figure in the Church’s history.”

Father Giuseppe Costa, CEO of Libreria Editrice Vaticana, the Publishing Company of the Vatican, had this to say about the new technology: “Every new communication technology is important to the Church’s missionary activity. Aptara made our first foray into eBooks smooth and successful. We couldn’t be more thrilled with the quality of the series, in fact the eBook version gives new life to the texts’ magnificent imagery.”