VATICAN CITY (CNS): Over the next eight years, the German publishing giant Herder and the Pope Benedict XVI Institute of Regensburg, Germany, will offer the public The Complete Works of Joseph Ratzinger.
Presenting the first volume in the 16-tome series, Bishop Gerhard Muller of Regensburg told reporters on October 22 that Pope Benedict XIV personally approved the project and insisted that it carry his birth name.
Bishop Muller said the Pope wanted to make it clear that the works, almost all of which were completed before his election in 2005, reflected his personal theological thought and not the magisterial teaching of the Church.
Salesian Father Giuseppe Costa, director of the Vatican Publishing House, which controls the copyright of all the written work of the Pope, including the writings in the series, said discussions already were happening with the United States-based Ignatius Press to publish English translations of the volumes.
The preface to the first published volume, dedicated to articles, lectures and homilies about the liturgy, is signed “Benedict XVI”.
“When, after some hesitation, I decided to take on the project of the publication of my collected works, it was clear to me that the priorities of the (Second Vatican) Council were the most important, which is why liturgy had to be first,” the Pope wrote.
Bishop Muller said each volume would include already published and well-known works along with homilies or lectures never previously published and a complete catalogue of references to other articles, homilies and letters by Joseph Ratzinger on the same subject.
The next volume, due out in March, contains the future pope’s post-doctoral thesis on the doctrine of revelation in the works of St Bonaventure, Bishop Muller said.
The only work originally published after Pope Benedict’s election to be featured in the series, he said, would be the Pope’s 2007 book, “Jesus of Nazareth”, and its anticipated second volume.
