Vatican watcher outlines important passages of Pope’s new autobiographical book

Rome, Italy, May 26, 2004 / 22:00 pm

According to renowned Vatican observer Sandro Magister of the online weekly “L’Espresso,” what Pope John Paul II writes, as well as what he doesn’t write, in his new autobiographical work, “Get Up! Let’s Go!,” which has already sold more than 150,000 copies in Italy in the first week, manifests the preferences and concerns of the Pontiff.

Magister points out first of all the Pope’s appreciation of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.  “The Pope recalls Ratzinger's entire curriculum,” says Magister.  “No other person in the book is called ‘faithful friend’ by Wojtyla,” he writes, adding that “the name of Ratzinger has risen decisively in the list of papabili.”

According to Magister, the Pope expresses his fascination with the future of Christianity in Asia.  But while he ignores India, where “the theology of religious pluralism has taken root, which is destructive to missionary propagation,” he emphasizes the Philippines and Korea as “theatres of a popular Catholicism which is doctrinally disciplined, morally demanding, and fiercely expansive.”
 

Magister also takes notice of the Pope’s praise for different movements and the ones he mentions by name.  Although the Pope writes that “it is not possible to mention them all,” Magister is surprised at the absence of any mention of the Community of St. Egidio, which was born in Rome.

“Evidently the closeness of the Pope which Andrea Riccardi and other leaders of the movement take every possible occasion to proclaim is not as strong as they say it is.”

The complete column can be read at:
www.chiesa.espressonline.it/english