AntiRatzinger, a book of an anonymous author about the life of Josef Ratzinger, who adopted the name Benedict XVI after he was elected the Pope on April 19, 2005, is to be published in Czech a few weeks before Benedict XVI's official visit to the Czech Republic. The book analyses Ratzinger's policy and his views on certain social problems and points to his experience with the Hitlerjugend (Hitler's Youth) organisation of which he was a member.
Like in the case of its Italian original, the author of the book remains anonymous and the Czech translator has also remained in anonymity.
The book will be published by the Grimmus printing house.
It is not clear what reaction the book might provoke among Czech readers.
Czech church-goers have reserved over 100,000 tickets to a September mass that Pope Benedikt XVI will celebrate in the Czech Republic.
"We have not seen the book and know nothing about it. We cannot thus express any position," the chairman of the Czech Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Jan Graubner, told CTK Monday.
The first part of the book describes Ratzinger's path to power since his arrival to Rome in 1981 and until his first encyclic in January 2006, and it analyses the roods of his world outlook, including his membership in Hitlerjugend.
According to Ratzinger, he had to join the organisation when his was 14 years of age against his will.
In the second part of the book irony becomes the main weapons of the author, the publisher says.
The book shows, for instance, Raztinger's contradictory views on certain problems, publisher Roman Schmidt told CTK.
He said the author remained anonymous not only out of respect to the tradition of pamphlets, as he himself says, but apparently also out of fear of the consequences of his book, bearing in mind the fate of Salman Rushdi and others.
AntiRatzinger has been translated into several languages. However, the radical text of the book was, for instance, somewhat moderated in the American versions. The text of the book was reduced in some politically incorrect parts.
The Pope's decision to rehabilitate Bishop Richard Williamson who denied the Holocaust is considered one of his controversial steps.
Pope Benedict XVI will visit the Czech Republic on September 26-27, at the invitation of the Czech and Moravian bishops and Czech President Vaclav Klaus.
Benedict XVI will meet Klaus in Prague.
Apart from Prague, he will visit Moravia where he will celebrate a mass at the Brno airport.
On the last day of his visit, September 28, which is Saint Wenceslas Day, Benedict XVI will celebrate a mass in the town of Stara Boleslav, central Bohemia.
St Wenceslas, the patron saint of Czechs, died a martyr's death in Stara Boleslav in 935.
Some 30,000 people who are expected to take part in the Saint Wenceslas National Pilgrimage will attend the mass.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to us or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that we agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
SIC: PDM