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Catholic World News News Feature

Pope's new book affirms Europe's Christian roots June 22, 2005

In a new book, containing major speeches he delivered prior to election to the pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI underlines the role of faith in European society.

The new book, entitled The Europe of Benedict: In the Crisis of Cultures, was introduced in Rome on June 21, at a press conference chaired by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Pope's vicar for the Rome diocese. Also present at the press conference were Marchello Pera, the president of the Italian senate, who contributed a preface for the book; and Father Georg Gaenswein, the Pope's personal secretary.

The 143-page volume-- available now only in Italian-- includes three addresses delivered by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger during his tenure as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. All three speeches had already appeared in print, but the compilation in book form seemed clearly intended to emphasize the Pope's commitment to preserving Europe's Christian traditions.

Cardinal Ruini, in introducing the book, told reporters that Pope discussed "the fundamental points of European culture in relation to Christianity," adding that the faith remains a dominant formative influence on European society.

The ties between Europe and the faith, the cardinal continued, "today are at risk of being broken, not by accident" but through the influence of an aggressive secularism. Cardinal Ruini spoke of an ideology which believes that "God does not exist, or at least doees not have to be accepted, and thus no reference to Him can be made in public life."

The Italian prelate added that in the book, Pope Benedict/Cardinal Ratzinger appeals to lay Catholics to combat the spread of that ideology, and to "orient their lives as if God exists."

The appearance of the Pope's new book sparked new debates about the role of the Catholic Church in Italian politics, coming after a national referendum in which the Italian hierarchy scored a signal victory with the defeat of an effort to loosen the country's laws governing in vitro fertilization. Many of the commentaries on The Europe of Benedict focused on Cardinal Ratzinger's insistence that the Church will never accept the legitimacy of legalized abortion.

In commenting on that debate, Cardinal Ruini said that while Church leaders have no immediate plans to seek repeal of the law allowing abortion, "the moral judgment of the Church is clear." Similarly, the president of the Italian bishops' conference said that the Church will not modify her teaching in opposition to homosexual acts and same-sex unions.

The three speeches contained in the Pope's new book are:

1. an address on "What it Means to Believe," delivered in 1992 at Bassano del Grappa, Italy, when the German prelate received a prize for contributions to Catholic culture;
2. a talk on "The Right to Life in Europe," delivered at a pro-life conference in 1997; and
3. a speech on "The Crisis of Cultures," delivered on April 1 of this year-- the eve of the death of Pope John Paul II-- at Subiacco, where St. Benedict founded his first monastery in the 6th century, as Cardinal Ratzinger received the "St. Benedict for Europe" prize.

Since his election to the papacy on April 19, Pope Benedict-- who as Cardinal Ratzinger was a prolific author-- has seen a boom in the sales of his previous works. Shortly after his election, the Pope assigned all the rights to his works to the Vatican publishing house, Libreria Editrice Vaticana-- which has published The Europe of Benedict in collaboration with the Italian Cantagelli firm.