Vatican City, 12 January, 2020 / 11:44 pm (ACI Africa).
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, have co-authored a book on the crisis in the Church and on priestly ministry.
"From the Depths of Our Hearts" will be published in English by Ignatius Press. It can now be preordered, and it is due to ship Feb. 20.
The work “is not just about priestly celibacy, important as that is in itself,” Fr. Joseph Fessio, founder and editor of Ignatius Press, said. “It is about, as Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI describes it in his first paragraph: ‘the lasting crisis that the priesthood has been going through for many years.’ But it is about more than that; it is about the nature of the Church and of Christian discipleship.”
According to Ignatius Press, Benedict and Cardinal Sarah “honestly address the spiritual challenges faced by priests today, including struggles of celibacy,” and “point to deeper conversion to Jesus Christ as the key to faithful and fruitful priestly ministry and church reform.”
Benedict and Cardinal Sarah write that “the priesthood is going through a dark time. Wounded by the revelation of so many scandals, disconcerted by the constant questioning of their consecrated celibacy, many priests are tempted by the thought of giving up and abandoning everything.”