Pope Francis writes preface to Ratzinger / BXVI volume
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has written the preface to the first volume in an anthology of the “selected works of Joseph Ratzinger / Benedict XVI” being published by Cantagalli in Italy. Titled, Insegnare e imparare l’amore di Dio, “To Teach and To Learn the Love of God”, to be published in six languages, including English.
In the preface, Pope Francis writes, “Every time I have read the works of Joseph Ratzinger / Benedict XVI, it becomes increasingly clear that he has done and is doing ‘theology on his knees’.” The Holy Father goes on to explain that his predecessor, “[E]ven before being a great theologian and teacher of the faith,” is “a man who truly believes, who truly prays: you see he is a man who embodies holiness.”
The book (Siena, Cantagalli, 2016, 304p., € 19) brings together the texts of 43 homilies, starting with a 1954 selection delivered in Berchtesgaden and dedicated to Franz Niegel, from the day of then-Father Ratzinger’s first Mass. The collection closes with the Letter to Priests by which he announced the Year for Priests. The final selection is preceded by an introduction written by the Prefect of the Congregation for the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Müller.
The book is being released on the eve of the sixty-fifth anniversary of Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI’s sixty-fifth jubilee of priestly ordination, which took place on June 29th, 1951, in the Cathedral of Freising.
The anthology is the first of a series of “selected writing” which will cover topics ranging from science and faith, to Europe, creative minorities, politics and faith, universities, and the Eucharist.