John F. Thornton

Susan B. Varenne

The Essential Pope Benedict XVI is “an outstanding collection of texts that takes us straight to the heart of Benedict XVI’s thoughts” (Alister McGrath).

Introduction by D. Vincent Twomey, SVD

On April 24, 2005, Cardinal Joseph Alois Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI, the twenty-first-century successor of the Apostle Peter and the spiritual leader of more than one billion Roman Catholics. Through John F. Thornton and Susan B. Varenne’s carefully chosen selections from his homilies, interviews, theological essays, and articles on the crises facing the church today, The Essential Pope Benedict XVI relates his thoughts and beliefs about a variety of contemporary issues, including modern culture’s abandonment of traditional religious values, social mores regarding conception and the sanctity of life, current challenges to the priesthood, and the Catholic Church’s tenuous relations with other world religions.

First a brilliant peritus, or “expert advisor,” to the Second Vatican Council and then archbishop of Munich, Joseph Ratzinger was appointed head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith by Pope John Paul II in 1981. As Cardinal Ratzinger, the ex officio defender of church doctrine, he gained a reputation as a heroic guardian of the faith for conservatives and was held in suspicion by church liberals.

This one volume is the best source for understanding the heart, soul, and agenda of one of the most important theological voices of the Catholic faith, a twenty-first-century successor to St. Peter.

“This book is an open door, inviting the reader into the mind and heart of a great teacher of eternal truth.” —Richard John Neuhaus, author of American Babylon: Notes of a Christian Exile