Pope John Paul II. © CBA image (CBA)
Popes ie encyclicals, write decrees and apostolic letters, sermons, and doctrinal letters. The fact that popes also write private books and even grant interviews is still relatively new.
Francis has now given more than a dozen major press interviews, Benedict XVI. wrote a three-part work on Jesus of Nazareth and published several books of interviews. But the beginning was already made by John Paul II.: 25 years ago, on 20. October 1994, his book "Crossing the Threshold of Hope" was published. The work became a bestseller, translated into more than 50 languages and sold more than 20 million copies.
Premiere with an unusual prehistory
The 250-page book was a first – with an unusual prequel. It was planned as a television interview, but it never took place. John Paul II. had the Italian RAI for the 15th time. Pontifical Jubilee 1993 promised a conversation. The interviewer was the Catholic journalist Vittorio Messori, who nine years earlier had published a highly acclaimed book of interviews with Joseph Ratzinger, "On the State of Faith".
The TV premiere failed due to the Pope's dense program. However, John Paul II. obviously interested in the 20 questions submitted in writing – and answered them, in writing. Six months later, the Vatican spokesman at the time, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, handed the surprised Messori a thick envelope containing the pope's manuscript – at his free disposal.
As unusual as the prehistory were also the cut and content of the interview book, which resembled less a conversation than a series of reflections and treatises on given keywords. It is a theological, a philosophical work, with many autobiographical features. Messori dispensed with classic journalistic questions, with the latest ecclesiastical or political news, with hot topics ranging from celibacy to sexual morality.
Rather, he asked the Pope basic questions of the Christian faith.
John Paul II. spoke about prayer and proofs of God, about Christian hope, human dignity and eternal life. He emphasized the reasonableness of faith and its redemptive perspective, combined his own experiences with exhortations and theological speculations. The book showed a pope who puts concern for the human person at the center of his teaching ministry. Who responds to the deepest fears of people today, to which he responds with his motto formulated on election day: "Do not be afraid".
German catch caused confusion
Since it was not a magisterial letter, the book was not to be published in the Vatican. The Mondadori publishing house in Milan won the contract, took the publications in hand, the German edition was published by Hoffmann und Campe. The book was presented in a Milan hospital, exactly one year after the scheduled TV date – by then-Cardinal Prefect Joseph Ratzinger. Since a world synod of bishops (on religious life) was currently attracting media attention in the Vatican, attention was limited.
Meanwhile, the German catch of the Pope's book, which the publisher had given to a translator found by newspaper advertisement, caused some confusion and upset. According to the Secretariat of State, it was no longer possible to make a final check of the text as planned. It contained several errors and inaccuracies. Thus, the established term "body of Christ" was consistently rendered as "body of Christ".
Of course, it was not the only private book of the Polish pope. In two publications ("Gift and Mystery," and "On, Let Us Go!") he presented memories from his time as a young priest and as a young bishop. In 2003 a collection of poems "Roman Tryptichon" was published.
And at the beginning of 2005, shortly before his death, under the title "Memory and Identity. Conversations on the threshold between the millennia" out. The basis for this were discussions with two Polish philosophers in 1993, which dealt with "the coexistence of good and evil," "freedom and responsibility," the concept of "fatherland," but also "Europe," church-state relations, and the opportunities and risks of democracy.