Vatican present at Frankfurt International Book Fair

(ZENIT News / Frankfurt, 10.22.2022).- The Libreria Editrice Vaticana (LEV) is presented at the Frankfurt Book Fair, which takes place from October 19 to 23 in that German city, with several editorial novelties, already awakening the interest and curiosity of several foreign publishers for their titles.

On the occasion of a very significant anniversary for the life of the Church and culture: next year will be the 800th anniversary of the first nativity scene, conceived and built by Saint Francis of Assisi at Christmas 1223. For this reason, the Libreria Editrice Vaticana (LEV) is working on a book by Pope Francis entitled “Il presepe”. The characters and symbols of Christmas Eve, in which the pontiff explains the meaning and message of the different characters, both physical and figurative, of the representation of the Nativity.

Another new book by Pope Francis is also being premiered in Frankfurt: “Walking together. Words and reflections on synodality”, edited by Sister Nathalie Becquart, undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops. It is an anthology that collects what the pontiff has said and says on the subject of the Church that listens and walks as the people of God from the moment of his election to the papal throne until today. A very important text just when it has been announced that the Synod on Synodality will be held in two stages, in October 2023 and October 2024.

Another text of Pope Francis is dedicated to the theology of the priesthood: “According to the style of God. Reflections on the spirituality of the priesthood », in which his intervention is presented at the symposium on the theology of the priesthood held in recent months at the Vatican, accompanied by comments by Father Timothy Radcliffe and Father Luigi Maria Epicoco. The text is also enriched with a series of meeting cards for the ongoing formation of the clergy.

Along with these and other titles of Pope Francis and recent magisterial documents from the different bodies of the Holy See, the LEV brought to Frankfurt some 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 been very well received 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. It will also be presented at the Book Fair «Le diversità riconciliate. A Protestant in the Pope’s Newspaper”, by Marcelo Figueroa, reverend of the Presbyterian Church 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”, edited by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

“Two recent publications that intersect the themes of literature and spirituality deserve a few words,” explains Lorenzo Fazzini, director of publications at the Libreria Editrice Vaticana. «The first, “La tessitura del mondo” (The fabric of the world), edited by Andrea Monda, editor of L’Osservatore Romano, which collects texts by Pope Francis on the subject of narration in dialogue with great writers, writers and intellectuals from all over 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 that was very well received by readers.

The second, «La Parola e racconti. Sedici scrittrici Italiane leggono le parabole dei Vangeli” (Sixteen Italian Women Writers Read the Parables of the Gospels), conceived by the editors of the women’s supplement of L’Osservatore Romano, Donne Chiesa Mondo, in which some of the best-known Italian women writers of the Today they reread and are inspired by the evangelical parables to write their own stories. These two publications testify that a renewed and fruitful synergy can be born between literature and spirituality in the publishing field, showing how contaminations and crosses can arise that enrich faith and knowledge between these two dimensions of the human being».

Vatican present at Frankfurt International Book Fair – ZENIT – English