An 190-page book of essays by the late Pope Emeritus has been published, according to his orders, three weeks after his death.
A book on priestly celibacy by Cardinal Robert Sarah wrongly listed the Pope Emeritus as a co-author. After a critical response, Benedict said: “I do not want to publish anything else in my life.”
Ivandro Inetti/CNAPope Benedict XVI decided to publish a book of essays after his death because of the furore evoked by his contribution to a book on priestly celibacy by Cardinal Robert Sarah.
The Pope Emeritus said he was wrongly listed as the co-author of From the Depths of Our Hearts by Cardinal Sarah, when it was published in 2020.
According to the theologian, Elio Guerriero, Benedict had told him after the publication of Sarah’s book: “I do not want to publish anything else in my life.
“The fury of the circles opposed to me in Germany is so strong that the appearance of any word from me immediately provokes a murderous clamour on their part,” he told Guerriero, adding: “I want to spare myself and Christendom this.”
Benedict informed Guerriero he should not have been listed as co-author of Sarah’s book and had only contributed extensive notes which formed one chapter.
Guerriero curated What is Christianity?, an 190-page volume of essays by Benedict, published on the Pope Emeritus’s orders, three weeks after his death on 31 December, 2022.
Benedict’s former private secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, also helped edit the volume. Four of the book’s 16 essays had never previously published.
Benedict speaks in the book of “individual bishops and not just in the United States, who rejected Catholic tradition in its entirety, aiming to develop a kind of new, modern Catholicity in their dioceses.”
He adds: “In not a few seminaries students caught reading my books were considered unsuitable for the priesthood. My books were hidden as though they were harmful literature and read only in secret.”
In the preface, dated 1 May, 2022, Benedict disclosed that he had felt unable to make any plans following his resignation in 2014.
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Theologian explains why Benedict XVI published posthumous book
Theologian explains why Benedict XVI published posthumous book
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