This item appearing in tomorrow's (12/8/09) issue of L'Osservatore Romano must be somewhat embarassing for editor Vian. Vian himself was one f 34 prominent Italian intellectuals asked by the newspaper Il Sole 24 Ora to name what they thought to be the best book of 2009 in their respective fields.
His choice was an Italian novel called 'Diary of a Country Priest' which is apparently a contemporary Italian take-off on Georges Bernanos's 1937 classic novel of the same name.
'Caritas in veritate':
an Italian economist chooses it
as the best book of 2009
by Giovanni Maria Vian
Translated from
the 12/7-12/8/09 issue of
As usual at this time of year,
Il Sole 24 Ore, in its influential Sunday supplement
Domenica, focused yesterday on the best book of the year.
It turned to "34 intellectuals, economists and scholars", all Italian except for British historian Simon Schama, and the results included 27 titles in Italian and seven in English (mainly on economic issues).
Obviously, the choices were very diverse as well as interesting.
Among the responses, that of Mario Deaglio stands out. He is one of the most authoritative of Italian economists, professor of economics at the University of Turin, who was the editor of
Il Sole 24 Ore [Italy's version of The Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal], and is currently an editorialist for
La Stampa.
For Deaglio, the best book of 2009 was Benedict XVI's
Caritas in veritate because, he underscores, the encyclical "offers a global view of the problems of the planet that no political leader has managed to provide."
He goes on: "The Pontiff, who has been called reactionary by some, has written an innovative work that provides a very effective and original framework for the burning issues of today: the equitable distribution of resources, the need to find ways to reduce the gap between cocial classes, the role of the market, and the question of the environment. It is a complete and ample inventory of the world's problems that is logical and rigorous. It does not propose facile solutions but rather points the way along which such solutions should be sought".
To Deaglio's choice, one might add that recently, the American magazine for economy and finance
Forbes - famous for its various lists ranking individuals in terms of power and wealth - had the Pope at #11 in its 2009 list of 'The World's Most Powerful People'.
It calls the Pope "the highest earthly authority for a billion souls, that is, almost one-sixth of the planet's population", while the Catholic Church is described, in economic lingo that is nonetheless quite suggestive, as "the oldest and most vast multinational in the world".
It is in the light of such descriptions that one must understand the application of the category of 'power' - even if it would be much closer to reality to use the word 'influence' instead - to a spiritual leader like Benedict XVI, who is commonly
treated as traditionalist and conservative while failing to grasp his anti-conformism.
In any case, one must be glad about these acknowledgments - which are completely secular - of the presence and influence of a kind and gentle man who never fails to unite Christian preaching with an appeal to reason which is common to all men.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 08/12/2009 01:25]