Forgive this re-post from yesterday. It was the last post at the bottom of the page, so I am just highlighting it again... and have added an essay written 'about the book' when it was first announced last summer.... Frankly, I am surprised that none of the major Catholic blogs I follow have not yet picked up Ignatius's announcement from yesterday!.. I like the German cover design which uses B16's handwriting for the main title...
A CHRISTMAS GIFT
ONE MONTH EARLY
In less than a month Ignatius Press will be publishing a book by a fairly well-known man that is sure to get some attention:
Light Of The World The Pope, The Church and The Signs Of The Times, the third book-length interview by German journalist Peter Seewald of Pope Benedict XVI.
The first two interviews,
Salt of the Earth, and
God and the World, took place before Cardinal Ratzinger was elected pope; Seewald is also the author of
Benedict XVI: An Intimate Portrait. Light of the World is wide-ranging and unprecedented:
Never has a Pope, in a book-length interview, dealt so directly with such wide-ranging and controversial issues as Pope Benedict XVI does in
Light of the World. Taken from a recent week-long series of interviews with veteran journalist Peter Seewald, this book tackles head-on some of the greatest issues facing the world of our time. Seewald poses such forthright questions to Pope Benedict as:
•What caused the clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church?
•Was there a "cover up"?
•Have you considered resigning?
•Does affirming the goodness of the human body mean a plea for "better sex"?
•Can there be a genuine dialogue with Islam?
•Should the Church rethink Catholic teaching on priestly celibacy, women priests, contraception, and same-sex relationships?
•Holy Communion for divorced-and-remarried Catholics?
•Is there a schism in the Catholic Church?
•Should there be a Third Vatican Council?
•Is there any hope for Christian unity?
•Is Christianity the only truth?
•Can the Pope really speak for Jesus Christ?
•How can the Pope claim to be "infallible"?
•Is there a "dictatorship of relativism" today?
Twice before, these two men held wide-ranging discussions, which became the best-selling books
Salt of the Earth and
God and the World. Then, Seewald's discussion partner was Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Vatican's chief doctrinal office.
Now, Joseph Ratzinger is Pope Benedict XVI, the spiritual leader of the world's over one billion Catholics. Though Seewald now interviews the Pope himself, the journalist "pulls no punches", posing some of the thorniest questions any Pope has had to address.
Believers and unbelievers will be fascinated to hear Benedict's thoughtful, straightforward and thought-provoking replies. This is no stern preachment or ponderous theological tract, but a lively, fast-paced, challenging, even entertaining exchange.
The Foreword to
Light of the World was written by George Weigel, whose new book,
The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II—The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy, is available through Ignatius Press.
Of the thousands of literally ravishing photographs that are available of Pope Benedict XVI, why do book publishers always manage to choose the most 'pedestrian' [for lack of a more appropriate word to characterize their oh-so-undistinguished picks!] for their covers??? GRRRR!!!!
Summer conversations between
the Pope and Peter Seewald
by Deacon Keith Fournier
ROME, Italy, Sept. 1 (Catholic Online) - When he first assumed the Chair of Peter, some mistook Pope Benedict XVI's diminutive stature and milder manner of communication as a signal that he was somewhat less inclined to the spontaneous than his predecessor.
After all, the world had not seen the kind of easy communication which the late Servant of God John Paul II displayed.
[Fournier forgets John XXIII!] So, it was assumed, his shoes would be somewhat hard to fill and we should not expect another communicator Pope.
This became the often repeated "conventional wisdom". However, what quickly emerged was something quite different: Pope Benedict XVI would continue the pattern of communicating comfortably with the faithful. Only, his manner and demeanor were very different from his predecessor. He just has different shoes ...and he fills them quite well.
Observers of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger knew of his extraordinary gift of teaching, amply demonstrated in his career as a theologian and a professor. They also knew of his manner. He offers reflective, gently expressed and insightful comments in response to questions. He has done this for years; and often, in small groups. The format of question and answer as a means of communication has been part of his priestly ministry for a very long time.
He continued the practice since he assumed the Chair of Peter and has demonstrated his comfort with the medium. For example, we only have to call back to mind some of his back and forth dialogue with priests and even with children while he was on vacation.
These dialogues reveal a kind man who is not only deeply evangelical, in the sense of wanting to bring people into an encounter with the Lord Jesus, but comfortable in his own skin and unafraid of spontaneity.
So when Fr Federico Lombardi announced on August 31 that Pope Benedict XVI had spent an entire week at Castel Gandolfo having conversations with Peter Seewald which would form the framework for a new book - observers of this Pope were not surprised. After all, he has done this very thing in the past.
In 1996 then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was the Head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. He gave a series of interviews to Peter Seewald. They became the best selling
Salt of the Earth: The Church at the End of the Millennium. Those answers to the German Journalist on a wide range of subjects are still being reviewed by those following this Papacy.
In 2002, he did it once again - with the same journalist. It produced a sequel entitled
God and the World: Faith and Life in Our Time.
[Fournier inexplicably omits the very first such interview-book which would create a new literary genre: the one in 1984 with Vittorio Messori that came out in English as THE RATZINGER REPORT, and which inspired John Paul II to do a similar interview-book with Messori years later, CROSSING THE THRESHOLD OF HOPE. ]
The announcement swept the global media instantly. Once again, the Pope has chosen Peter Seewald for the privilege. There are several reasons.
First, he is loyal to his friends, as well as his students.
[The overriding consideration here, it appears, was to get the book out ASAP, which would be so much easier if he spoke to a German journalist in his own language, rather than conducting it in Italain with Messori or in some other language which the Pope would then have to review in the original language before it can be published and translated.]
Not only is Peter Seewald a highly respected European journalist, but he admittedly owes much to the priestly ministry of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger - now Pope Benedict XVI. He openly acknowledges that he was an atheist until his encounters with the Pope. Those encounters led to his re-conversion to the Catholic faith.
His desire for all men and women to encounter Jesus Christ is the very core of Pope Benedict XV's mission and reveals his heart. In his encyclical letter on the Love of God he writes "Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction."
This new book will be something everyone reading this article will want to read. Like his other interviews it will reveal the very human side of this gifted man and, due to the format, it will communicate his profound insights on Christ and the Church in conversational and accessible manner.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 30/10/2010 16:48]