ROME - 22 November 2006 - 265 words
Pope
to publish book on Jesus
Pope Benedict XVI has finished the first part of a book entitled
'Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration,'
which will be published next spring.
The announcement was made yesterday by the Vatican Publishing House, (LEV) which received the Pope's manuscript a few days ago, and has been entrusted with its distribution.
"Conscious of the expectation at the world level of this first work of Benedict XVI," the announcement said, "the LEV has made the appropriate agreements with Rizzoli Publishing House, ceding to the latter the rights of translation, diffusion and commercialisation of the work worldwide."
In Germany, Rizzoli has ceded the rights to the Herder Verlag publishing family, with whom Joseph Ratzinger maintained a relationship in the past.
In the preface, passages of which have been issued, the Pope writes that this work "in no way is an act of the Magisterium, but only an expression of my personal search for the face of the Lord. Therefore, anyone is free to contradict me."
"I only ask readers for that anticipated sympathy without which there can be no understanding," the Holy Father states.
"I wished to attempt to present the Jesus of the Gospels as the authentic Jesus, as the historical Jesus in the authentic meaning of the word," Benedict XVI adds.
The book expresses one of Joseph Ratzinger's most profound convictions, a book which he had already planned to write before being elected Pope: "Through the man Jesus, God made himself visible and, from God, the image is seen of the just man."
Source: VIS
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