Thanks for the link, David - finally, we see what the English edition will look like (a direct copy of the original German).
But it is terrible that Bloomsbury, the UK publishers, seems to have such incompetent persons writing their press releases (and the pre-publication blurb, in this case) that they get quite a few things wrong.
Worst of all, that they make a priori conclusions that, in the context of who Benedict XVI is and what he has said so far about his resignation, make it appear that he was just 'defeated' by the job of being pope and 'the scandals', etc. Their conclusions betray that their only 'knowledge' about Benedict XVI before this was what they read in mainstream media, Catholic and secular alike.
Obviously none of them reads German, and the English translation is probably still underway. The publisher should have asked the translator to prepare the blurb because surely he read through the whole manuscript before starting to translate it.
Here is tbe blurb that appears on the Amazon site.
Pope Benedict made history by being the first Pope in over 700 years to resign from office. The Catholic Church the world over was stunned. Worn out by corruption in the Church and by an endless series of clerical sex scandals, he decided that the resolution of all these problems was outside his power for a man of his age.
"Last Testament" is nearest to an autobiography from the shy and private man who has remained hidden to the world in a former convent in the Vatican gardens. He breaks his silence on issues such as:
- The Vatileaks case in which his butler leaked some of his personal letters that alleged corruption and scandal in the Vatican (the butler remains in jail)[!!! This blatant ignorance of a simple fact of 'current events' that was widely reported in its time is unforgivable. It's embarrassing to have this kind of basic ignorance in a blurb about Benedict XVI.]
- The presence of a gay lobby within the Vatican and how he dismantled it
- His alleged Nazi upbringing [No one, not even his most malicious enemies (such as those in the UK who headlined his election "Ex-Hitler Youth becomes Pope") alleged he had a Nazi upbringing, but simply used 'Nazi' and 'Hitler Youth' in their headlines to cast aspersion on Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI through mere word association.]
- His attempts at cleaning up the dirt in the church (clerical sexual abuse)
- The mysterious private secretary Gorgeous George [I very much doubt the interview would devote any significant amount of attention to GG, much less have him be referred to anywhere as 'Gorgeous George'. It sounds to me like a shameless tidbit to titillate GG's fans, who do not need any such gratuitous references to read anything new about Benedict XVI regardless.]
On a more personal level he writes with great warmth of his successor Pope Francis, who he admits has a popular touch, a star quality which he has lacked. [First of all, he did not write this interview - he answered questions which were recorded. And we have to wait to read what he actually said before anyone can say he 'writes with great warmth about his successor'. There is a difference between proper deference and gratuitous praise.]
Much controversy still surrounds Pope Benedic'ts Papacy--in this book he addresses these controversies and reveals how at his late age, governing and reforming the Papacy and particularly the Vatican, was beyond him. [I cannot wish enough anathemas on whoever wrote this blurb and on the Bloombury publishers who obviously see nothing wrong about it.]
There was this earlier dreadfully misleading and erroneous announcement in an online site dedicated to books and publishing:
Pope Benedict XVI inks deal with Bloomsbury
By Maryann Yin
GALLEYCAT
JulY 29, 2016
Pope Benedict XVI, the predecessor of Pope Francis, has signed a deal with Bloomsbury. He plans to collaborate with Peter Seewald, a German journalist, write an autobiography entitled 'Last Testament'. [The writer obviously misunderstood the Bloomsbury press release that she based her report on].
Jacob Phillips will serve as the English language translator on this project. Both the United Kingdom and the United States divisions of the publishing house have set the release date in November 2016.
Here’s more from the press release:
“So much controversy still surrounds Pope Benedict`s Papacy – in this book he addresses these controversies and reveals how at his late age, governing and reforming the Papacy and particularly the Vatican, was beyond him. [So there, they had that offensive statement in their press release as well.]
But the book is also an autobiography – Pope Benedict starts by recalling his childhood in Germany under Hitler and the Nazis when he joined Hitler Youth under duress. [He did not join the Hitler Youth - he was automatically and mandatorily enrolled into it like all other German children at the time. It was not exactly duress - it was just a dreadful fact of life under a totalitarian autocracy.]
It goes on to cover his early life as a priest and eventually his appointment as Archbishop of Munich. After becoming Pope, his account deals with the controversies that rocked the catholic world – how he enraged the Muslim world with his Regensburg speech, what he did and did not do to stamp out the clerical sexual abuse of children, the Vatileaks scandal and more.”
BTW, we can be sure ample excerpts of the book will appear in the media and various online sites after Sept. 9, when the German, Italian and French editions come out. I hope they will be available as e-books...
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 12/08/2016 02:09]