Please see preceding page for earlier entries on 8/27/12.
Indirectly, here is Andrea Tornielli's riposte to Sandro Magister's recent strange and rather trivial speculation about JON-3, the third volume of the Holy Father's JESUS OF NAZARETH, in which Magister blows up the question of who will publish the Italian version as a pretext to bring in his apparent belief, following the so far unsubstantiated speculation of German journalist Paul Badde that Ingrid Stampa, the Pope's onetime housekeeper, confidante and translator [she also translated many of John Paul II's books into German] has become a pariah to the Pope, because of Vatileaks.
About JON-3: Italian publisher still unclear -
Rizzoli is bidding for it - but one thing sure,
Ingrid Stampa continues to be involved
by ANDREA TORNIELLI
Translated from the Italian service of
August 27, 2012
Rizzoli publishing house has made a bid for the rights to the book and Herder's 'reader' of the Pope's German texts is hard at work going through the manuscript of the volume dedicated to the childhood and 'hidden years' of Jesus.
And Ingrid Stampa continues to be involved in preparing the book for publication.
Burkhard Menke, 51, had to forego his summer vacation this year stay in Freiburg, headquarters of the German publisher Herder, to pore through the manuscript of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI on the
Kindheitsgeschichten (Infancy Gospels), whose Italian edition could be published By Rizzoli which published Vol. 1 of JON.
This third book, initially conceived by the Pope to be simply a 'chapter' or at the most, a pamphlet, is being closely 'read' these days by Burkhard Menke, 51, a layman with a degree in theology.
Menke is a so-called reader of Herder publishing house, which has published the works of Joseph Ratzinger for more than 50 years, and has been involved with pre-publication vetting of other Ratzinger/Benedict XVI books.
The scrupulous work of the reader has to do mostly with a factual and bibliographical ckeck of the book's contents, an aid that the Pope appreciates. Menke calls the attention of his designated contact at the Secretariat of State or the Pope's own secretaries, about every doubt he perceives in his reading. The Pope, who has written the JON books for the wider public beyond the academic and scientific world, apparently considers Menke's observations useful.
On August 2, after Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone made known that the Pope had finally finished his draft of JON-3, the Vatican Press Office followed with a confirmation, saying: "It will now proceed to being translated into the various major languages, which will be done in each case, directly from the German in which the book was written - this will require the appropriate time for careful translation of an important and much-awaited text".
But the Vatican note did not indicate who would be publishing the book nor an expected publication date.
The Pope's books also require scrupulous checking of citations - the Pope often cites texts from the Gospels and from the Fathers of the Church from memory, and so each citation must be checked, chapter and verse, against the sources, to make sure that every word and every punctuation mark is in place.
This is, of course, routinely done for any scientific or historical manuscript, all the more so when the book carries the double byline of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. Even if the Pope said in his Preface to the first volume that his work on Jesus must not be considered "in any way as a Magisterial act", which means "anyone is free to contradict me", it does not mean that it gets any less pre-publication scrutiny.
The next few days may also bring a decision on who will publish JON-3 in Italy. It will be recalled that the Vatican publishing house LEV granted the rights of translation and worldwide distribution of JON-1 to Italy's Rizzoli publishing house. In Germany, it was published by Herder, in the USA by Doubleday/Random House.
The decision to have the book published by the major secular publishing houses in most countries stirred objections from Catholic publishers.
In 2010, the Vatican publishing house decided to retain the rights to translate and sell the book around the world, and this time, it chose Catholic publishers in countries like the USA (Ignatius Press), Spain and France.
It is known that LEV and the Secretariat of State is considering a bid by Rizzoli which wishes to acquire the same rights for JON-3 as it did for JON-1.
The 150-page manuscript is expected to come to 200 pages in book form, compared to 446 and 348 pages, respectively, for the first two volumes in their Italian edition.
An importanjt factor to consider is the timing of the publication. The Pope's book on the Child Jesus, although it would be of great interest at any time, would obviously benefit greatly from being released around Christmas. In the same way that the second volume on the Passion, Death and Resurrection came out during Lent of 2011.
But even if Vol. 3 is much shorter, translation into the major languages, which is supervised by the translation department of the Secretariat of State, still requires time. And although the goal is to publish it by Christmas, this autumn will be a busy time for the Secretariat of State because of the General Assembly of the Bishops' Synod and the Year of Faith.
[Awww, surely the translation department can work out an appropriate schedule and division of labor to translate the Pope's book as well. It can well be done if the German-speaking translators who will be translating to English, French, Spanish, etc, were asked to devote their weekends to translate the Pope's book so it does not 'get in the way' of their routine translations - by all means, pay them for those few weekends!]
In this work on JON-3 by the Secretariat of State, Prof. Ingrid Stampa, who was a co-editor of the Italian edition of JON-1, and translated JON-2 to Italian, will continue to be involved. Housekeeper to Cardinal Ratzinger for 14 years until he became Pope, she was named by a German journalist last July as one of the supposed 'masterminds' of Vatileaks, which drew an unusual statement of denial from the Secretariat of State and Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi.
The German members of Benedict XVI's inner circle felt under pressure during Vatileaks, especially those of them who had the privilege of easy access to Cardinal Ratzinger, have retained this privilege even after he became Pope.
In any case, the newspaper report appears not to have had any effect on Ms. Stampa's employment at the Secretariat of State, where she is involved in the translation and editing of the Pope's various texts.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 28/08/2012 04:03]