Frankfurt Book Fair: The LEV with a work on the 800 years of the nativity scene

In the Buchmesse, the Vatican Publishing Library brings several novelties signed by Pope Francis, a focus on literature and spirituality, and works with special attention on spirituality and ecology

VaticanNews

The Frankfurt Book Fair opens tomorrow, one of the most prestigious events in the sector. As usual, the stand of the Vatican Publishing Library will be present, and among the books that characterize this year’s proposal there is one dedicated to a very significant upcoming anniversary for the life of the Church and culture: the 800th anniversary of the first nativity scene, conceived and built by Saint Francis of Assisi at Christmas 1223.

For this reason, the Lev is working on a book by Pope Francis entitled “Il presepe”, in which the Pontiff explains the meaning and message of the different characters and symbols, both physical and figurative, of the representation of the Nativity.

Francis’s books

Another new book by Pope Francis, Walking Together, is also premiering in Frankfurt. Words and reflections on synodality, by Sister Nathalie Becquart, Undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops. It is an anthology that collects what the Pope has said and says on the subject of the Church that listens and walks as God’s people from the moment of his election to the pontifical throne until today. A very important text that falls just as Francis announced the double appointment for the Synod of Synodality, in October 2023 and October 2024.

Another text of the Pope is the one dedicated to the theology of the priesthood, “According to the style of God.” Reflections on the spirituality of the priest, in which Francis’ speech is presented at the symposium on the theology of the priesthood held in the Vatican in recent months, accompanied by comments by Father Timothy Radcliffe and Father Luigi Maria Epicoco. The text is also enriched with some meeting sheets for the ongoing formation of the clergy.

Along with these and other titles by Pope Francis and the recent magisterial documents drafted by the different organizations of the Holy See, the Vatican Publishing Library brings to the Buchmesse in Frankfurt a series of recent texts related to the care of creation, social life and spirituality. First of all, the new book by the French economist and Jesuit Gaël Giraud “The soft revolution of the ecological transition. How to build a possible future”, which has already had a great reception in Italy in terms of sales and press; also, the biography of Venerable Tonino Bello by Bishop Domenico Cornacchia, Witness and teacher of virtue. The Christian Way of Don Tonino Bello, which is already being translated into Polish. Also presented at the Book Fair will be “Reconciled diversities. A Protestant in the Pope’s newspaper”, by Marcelo Figueroa, reverend of the Presbyterian community and director of the Argentine edition of L’Osservatore Romano, which will be published in Spanish and Portuguese , and “Theological ethics of life. Scripture, tradition, practical challenges”, by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

“Two recent publications that intertwine the themes of literature and spirituality deserve a word,” explains Lorenzo Fazzini, editorial manager of the Vatican Publishing Library: The first, “La tesitura del mundo”, by Andrea Monda, director of L’Osservatore Romano, which brings together texts by Pope Francis on the theme of storytelling in dialogue with great writers and intellectuals from around the world, from Donna Tart to Colum McCann, from Renzo Piano to Edna O’Brien. A text published by LEV in co-edition with Salani and which was very well received by readers. The second, “La Parola ei racconti”. Sixteen Italian Women Writers Read Parables from the Gospels, devised by the editors of the women’s supplement of L’Osservatore Romano, “Donne Chiesa Mondo”, in which some of today’s best-known Italian women writers reread and are inspired by the parables of the Gospels to write their own stories. These two publications attest that a renewed and fruitful synergy between literature and spirituality can be born in the publishing field, showing how contaminations and crossovers can arise that enrich faith and knowledge between these two dimensions of the human being.”

Frankfurt Book Fair: The LEV with a work on the 800 years of the nativity scene – Vatican News