VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The theological writings and papal instructing of the late Pope Benedict XVI have been and can proceed to be a blessing to the Catholic Church, Pope Francis wrote.
“Benedict XVI’s thought and magisterium are and at all times will stay fruitful as a result of he knew tips on how to give attention to the basic references of our Christian life: to start with, the individual and the phrase of Jesus Christ, in addition to the theological virtues, particularly charity, hope and religion,” the pope wrote within the introduction to a brand new ebook.
The Vatican publishing home described the ebook “Dio è Sempre Nuovo,” (“God is Ever-New”), as a set of the “religious ideas” of the late pope, “an anthology of the principal themes of the Christian religion within the phrases of Pope Benedict XVI.”
The ebook was edited by Luca Caruso, communications officer for the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Basis, and was scheduled for launch Jan. 14. The Vatican printed Pope Francis’ introduction Jan. 4.
Pope Francis’ highest reward for theologians at all times has been that they “do theology on their knees” in prayer and with love for the church.
“Benedict XVI did theology on his knees,” the pope wrote within the ebook’s introduction. “His clarification of the religion was carried out with the devotion of a person who has surrendered all of himself to God and who, underneath the steering of the Holy Spirit, sought an ever-greater participation within the thriller of that Jesus who had fascinated him from his youth.”
The brand new ebook’s title, Pope Francis stated, “expresses one of the crucial attribute elements of my predecessor’s magisterium and imaginative and prescient of religion: sure, God is at all times new as a result of he’s the supply and purpose for magnificence, grace and fact.”
“God isn’t repetitive, God surprises us, God brings newness,” the pope wrote, and the “religious freshness” of the late pope’s writings confirms these affirmations “with depth.”
Pope Benedict, he stated, supplied all Christians a mannequin exhibiting how “coronary heart and purpose, thought and affection, rationality and emotion work together” in each residing and explaining the facility of the Gospel.
The chosen quotations, Pope Francis stated, supply “a form of ‘religious synthesis’ of Benedict XVI’s writings,” and demonstrates “his capability to point out the depth of the Christian religion ever anew.”
Quoting simply six phrases of the late pope — “God is an occasion of affection” — is sufficient to do “full justice to a theology that at all times exhibits the concord between purpose and affection,” the pope stated.
One other ebook concerning the late pope additionally was scheduled for launch in January.
The Italian writer Piemme introduced it will publish Jan. 12 a ebook, “Nient’altro che la Verità” (“Nothing however the Reality”) by the late pope’s longtime private secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein.
Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press workplace, stated Jan. 4 he had not spoken to the archbishop concerning the ebook so couldn’t say if the writer’s description was hype or mirrored the contents of the ebook.
Piemme had stated that with the loss of life of Pope Benedict, “the time has come” for the archbishop “to inform the reality concerning the blatant calumnies and darkish maneuvers that attempted in useless to solid shadows on the German pontiff’s magisterium and actions.”