Press Release: Vatican Publishing House (LEV) at the Frankfurt Book Fair (16 to 20 October 2024)

Press Release

The Vatican Publishing House at the Frankfurt Book Fair, with a special focus on the theme of hope, in preparation for Jubilee 2025

New works by Pope Francis, books on spirituality, previously unpublished editions of Benedict XVI and powerful testimonies of faith

Vatican City, Tuesday 8 October 2024 – The Vatican Publishing House will participate from 16 to 20 October at the Frankfurt Buchmesse, whose guest of honour this year is Italy, with various editorial novelties. Just a few weeks from the beginning of the Jubilee, on the theme “Pilgrims of Hope”, the Vatican Publishing House is proposing several books to approach this significant time for the universal Church, that offers glimmers of light in a dark period.

Spes non confundit, the official text of the proclamation of the Ordinary Jubilee of the year 2025, in which the Pope illustrates the urgency of recovering the Christian virtue of hope, will be available in Frankfurt. Other volumes by Francis to prepare for the special year of grace: La speranza è una luce nella notte. Meditazioni sulla virtù umile (“Hope is a light in the night. Meditations on the humble virtue”), not to surrender to the night of evil but to live by hope, and, Faith is a journey. Meditations for Pilgrims and Wayfarers, a book of reflections on the value of being a person on a journey in one's faith experience.

The Vatican Publishing House will also present, in the German city, the book by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Compagni di speranza. Storie di testimoni capaci di futuro (“Companions of hope. Stories of witnesses capable of future”), which illustrates the life and holiness of figures such as Madeleine Delbrêl, Blessed Franz Jägerstätter and Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyên Van Thuân, and the volume Sperare per tutti. Parole umane sulla Speranza (“Hope for all. Human words on hope”), by Archbishop Rino Fisichella, responsible for the Jubilee dedicated to hope, which accompanies the reader in meditating on the human and Christian act of hope entrusting oneself to the Word of God. The theme of hope is very significant in the touching book La lama e la croce. Storie di cattolici che si opposero a Hitler (“The blade and the cross. Stories of Catholics who opposed Hitler”), by the journalist Francesco Comina, who describes the lives of anti-Nazi Catholic martyrs. The text, the result of research in Alto Adige, Austria and Germany, is striking for its message of civil resistance and Christian witness, and has been warmly received by readers.

Alongside these titles, an original and relevant book by Francis attesting to his deep interest in reading and writers is La letteratura, secondo me. Scritti sul valore della poesia e del romanzo (“Literature, in my own words. Writings on the value of poetry and the novel”). This book brings together, for the first time, the Argentine Pope’s comments on the value of literature for the inner growth of every person.

Also present in Frankfurt will be Benedict XVI’s unpublished homilies contained in the volume Il Signore ci tiene per mano. Avvento, Quaresima, Pasqua. Omelie inedite (“The Lord takes us by the hand. Advent, Lent, Easter. Unpublished homilies”). This important book, in which Joseph Ratzinger’s spiritual richness is evident, the homilies delivered by Pope Benedict XVI during the Eucharistic celebrations at which he presided in private both during his pontificate (2005-2013) and the period as Pope emeritus (from 2013 onwards) are presented for the first time in all the world.

Also of interest is Pope Francis’ book Prayers to Mary, and two texts on synodality, while the second Session of the Synod on this theme is currently taking place in the Vatican. The books “Listen to him!”. For a synodal spirituality, by the Dominican Timothy Radcliffe, who will be created a cardinal by Pope Francis in the Consistory this coming 8 December, and La memoria genera future. La sinodalità come stile di Chiesa (“Memory generates future. Synodality as the style of the Church”), by the Benedictine sister Maria Ignazia Angelini, are meditations offered during the first session of the Synod in October 2023.

The Vatican Publishing House will also bring to the Fair some of the most recent documents produced by various Holy See entities such as “The Queen of Peace”: Note About the Spiritual Experience Connected with Medjugorje of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and volumes linked to the care of creation and attention to our neighbours, illustrated in the book by Vincenzo Balzani and Erio Castellucci, La buona alleanza. Scienza e fede a difesa della casa comune (The good alliance. Science in faith in defence of the common home”) and Dale Recinella’s Un Cristiano nel braccio della morte. Il mio impegno a fianco dei condannati (“A Christian on death row. My work alongside the condemned”). This latter, with a preface by Pope Francis, is a shining testimony of faith and love in the darkness of American prisons. It is the story of a Wall Street lawyer and father, who turned his existence upside-down by passing from the world of finance to that of prisons, becoming a spiritual accompanier to prisoners facing the death penalty in Florida.

This set of books, presented in Frankfurt, constitute an offering of literary encounters, openings, spiritual reflections and confrontations to help us to feel and understand better the pulse of our world and question the role of believers in the face of numerous challenges.

Press contact:

helene.destombes@spc.va Tel. 06 69 698 45 366 Mob. 366 672 0498