ROME, AUG. 25, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The director of the Vatican’s publishing house says Vol. 2 of Benedict XVI’s book «Jesus of Nazareth» will be on sale in many languages for the First Sunday of Lent, March 13.
Giuseppe Costa made this announcement Tuesday on Vatican Radio.
The volume is on Christ’s passion and death, so publishers are aiming for the timeliness of a Lent release. The book is currently in translation and revision and will be at publishing houses on Jan. 15.
Costa explained that contracts have been confirmed with 18 publishing houses, although «it is not discarded that there will be more requests» in the forthcoming months.
In English, Ignatius Press will be publishing the work.
Benedict XVI, who is at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, is working on the third and final volume of the work, Vatican spokesman Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi confirmed last month. This last volume centers on Christ’s childhood.
Writings on liturgy
Costa was also a contributor at the 31st Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples, an annual event sponsored by the Communion and Liberation Movement in Rimini, Italy.
The director gave a presentation on the first volume of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s «Complete Works» on the liturgy.
The «Works» consists of 16 volumes that compile all of Cardinal Ratzinger’s writings on the liturgy from before he was elected Pope.
Bishop Gerhard Muller of Regensburg, who is in charge of the German edition, explained on Vatican Radio the importance of the liturgy in Joseph Ratzinger’s thought.
«The liturgy is the sacramental participation in the life of God,» he said. «That is why it isn’t only a ‘theater,’ a self-expression of the heart or of the idea of subjectivity, but it is the objective, real and concrete expression of contact with God himself, who wills to live with us, his creatures.»
