- In 1991, when we were making the aforementioned merger of two printing houses, one day the phone rang in my office. "Well, Maggiotto – I heard a low voice with a hint of playfulness in tone – I guess you don't start demolishing everything...?" I quickly reassured the Holy Father that I was not going to demolish anything, especially since the printing house building is almost three hundred years old! I only changed the organization of space within the building. Instead, I initiated revolutionary changes in the printing system. Previously, everything was hot-pressed with lead. Thanks to modern technology, which the Pope made possible for us to introduce, we began to make cold photo storage. John Paul II supported us a lot and agreed to everything, also in financial terms, but he set one condition. Everything was to remain "in the family", inside the Vatican, here our "new blood" was supposed to be trained. After the previous significant reduction of staff, only a few new people were hired to become experts in innovation in the printing house's operations. It was a great condition and we were happy to meet it. So, the Holy Father spent money on new equipment, and I separated small rooms in the printing house and there we taught newly hired workers to work using newly acquired printing machines.
The Pope was always keenly interested in how the printing house was developing, and soon after the merger of the two organisms, he came to visit us in the new headquarters. I remember waiting for him near the elevator at the Vatican Bank and then leading him to the entrance of the printing house.
Magdalena Wolińska-Riedi "It happened in the Vatican"
Znak Publishing House. Kraków 2020
pages: 71 – 72
