Press Release
In dialogue with his time: the complete interviews of Joseph Ratzinger with unpublished texts
Presentation in Rome on Thursday 21 November at 17.00
Vatican City, Wednesday 20 November 2024 – The thirteenth volume of the Opera omnia of Joseph Ratzinger, In dialogo con il proprio tempo (Vatican Publishing House) will be available in bookshops from Monday 25 November. This new volume, in three parts, brings together the numerous interviews given by Joseph Ratzinger, as professor, archbishop of Munich and Freising and prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The third tome contains previously unpublished interviews such as “We must stay open”. A conversation with Frizt Csoklich and Gerfried Sperl, which appeared in Kleine Zeitung (1969), the first interview given by Joseph Ratzinger; United in faith, free in everything else. A conversation with Guido Horst, the last unedited interview, published in the German weekly Die Tagespost (2003); We need people who practise the Gospel. A conversation with the German edition of “L’Osservatore Romano” (1988); Christianity has always claimed to be more than a mere tradition. A conversation edited by Patrick Bahners and Christian Geyer, which appeared in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (2000) and Believing today in Europe. A conversation with Johannes Schidelko, offered by Katholische Nachrichten-Agentur» (1989).
These unabridged texts, on various themes, are a dialogue with every reader and present, through the interviews, the profound thought of Joseph Ratzinger on faith, society and the situation of the Church.
In the introduction to the thirteenth volume, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., president of the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation, emphasizes that the interviews granted by Joseph Ratzinger are an integral part and not secondary to his ecclesial service, and are a very important tool for understanding him, both in the doctrinal field and in relation to the culture of our time, and in the field of his activity in the governance of the Congregation and the universal Church.
Book presentation
On Thursday 21 November, at 17.00, in the Aula Pia of LUMSA University in Rome (Via di Porta Castello, 44), the thirteenth volume of the Opera omnia of Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI, In dialogue with his time, will be presented. Archbishop Georg Gänswein, apostolic nuncio in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, former special secretary to Benedict XVI, will converse with Gian Guido Vecchi, journalist and Vatican correspondent of Il Corriere della Sera. The speakers will be Professor Francesco Bonini, rector of LUMSA University, Lorenzo Fazzini, editorial chief of the Vatican Publishing House, and Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J. The meeting will be moderated by Professor Pietro Luca Azzaro, translator and editor of the Opera omnia of Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI.
Press contact:
helene.destombes@spc.va Tel. 06 698 45 366
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