Vatican City, 31 December, 2023 / 6:00 pm (ACI Africa).
A brilliant thinker and prolific writer, Pope Benedict XVI wrote 66 books in his lifetime. His final work, “What Is Christianity? The Last Writings,” was published in Italian on Jan. 20, just weeks after his death at age 95 on Dec. 31, 2022. Ignatius Press published the English translation of the book on July 17.
While the texts were originally written in German, Elio Guerriero, the Italian director of the theological journal Communio, translated them into Italian, which Benedict wanted to be the reference language. Guerriero had previously collaborated with Pope Benedict on other works.
In this last book, the pope addressed a number of important issues he had not touched on before. He also clarified and expanded his thoughts about various social and theological questions.
Pope Benedict XVI deliberately reserved the book’s publication for after his death, a decision that has drawn a lot of attention. He explained his reasoning in a letter quoted in the foreword of the book, writing: “For my part, I want to publish nothing more during my lifetime. The fury of the circles in Germany that are opposed to me is so strong that if anything I say appears in print, it immediately provokes a horrible uproar on their part. I want to spare myself this and to spare Christianity, too.”
Regarding the timing of its publication, Father Joseph Fessio, SJ, editor of Ignatius Press, told CNA that “Pope Benedict was very conscious that his resignation was unusual and could cause confusion. He did not want to appear to be setting up some sort of parallel magisterium. He was very discreet.”