Extracts from Pope's New Book, 'The Name of God Is Mercy'
Pope Francis’ first book, The Name of God Is Mercy, in which the Holy Father expands on his vision of God’s mercy, [was published on Tuesday].
The work is a book-length interview with Vaticanist Andrea Tornielli of La Stampa. Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Italian film director Roberto Benigni, and Zhang Agostino Jianqing of Padua prison will be presenting the book at a press launch tomorrow at the Augustinianum in Rome.
...the book’s publishers, Piemme, have made the following extracts available.
Pope John Paul I: ‘engraved in dust’
The Holy Father also remembers being touched by the writings of his predecessor Pope John Paul I, Albino Luciani. “There is the homily when Albino Luciani said he had been chosen because the Lord preferred that certain things not be engraved in bronze or marble but in the dust, so that if the writing had remained, it would have been clear that the merit was all and only God’s. He, the bishop and future Pope John Paul I, called himself ‘dust’.”
“I have to say that when I speak of this, I always think of what Peter told Jesus on the Sunday of his resurrection, when he met him on his own, a meeting hinted at in the Gospel of Luke. What might Peter have said to the Messiah upon his resurrection from the tomb? Might he have said that he felt like a sinner? He must have thought of his betrayal, of what had happened a few days earlier when he pretended three times not to recognise Jesus in the courtyard of the High Priest’s house. He must have thought of his bitter and public tears.”
“If Peter did all of that, if the gospels describe his sin and denials to us, and if despite all this Jesus said [to him], ‘tend my sheep’ (John 21), I don’t think we should be surprised if his successors describe themselves as sinners. It is nothing new.”...Read more
Pope Francis’ first book, The Name of God Is Mercy, in which the Holy Father expands on his vision of God’s mercy, [was published on Tuesday].
The work is a book-length interview with Vaticanist Andrea Tornielli of La Stampa. Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Italian film director Roberto Benigni, and Zhang Agostino Jianqing of Padua prison will be presenting the book at a press launch tomorrow at the Augustinianum in Rome.
...the book’s publishers, Piemme, have made the following extracts available.
Pope John Paul I: ‘engraved in dust’
The Holy Father also remembers being touched by the writings of his predecessor Pope John Paul I, Albino Luciani. “There is the homily when Albino Luciani said he had been chosen because the Lord preferred that certain things not be engraved in bronze or marble but in the dust, so that if the writing had remained, it would have been clear that the merit was all and only God’s. He, the bishop and future Pope John Paul I, called himself ‘dust’.”
“I have to say that when I speak of this, I always think of what Peter told Jesus on the Sunday of his resurrection, when he met him on his own, a meeting hinted at in the Gospel of Luke. What might Peter have said to the Messiah upon his resurrection from the tomb? Might he have said that he felt like a sinner? He must have thought of his betrayal, of what had happened a few days earlier when he pretended three times not to recognise Jesus in the courtyard of the High Priest’s house. He must have thought of his bitter and public tears.”
“If Peter did all of that, if the gospels describe his sin and denials to us, and if despite all this Jesus said [to him], ‘tend my sheep’ (John 21), I don’t think we should be surprised if his successors describe themselves as sinners. It is nothing new.”...Read more
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