“Laudato si’ – el cuidado de la casa común: una conversión necesaria a la ecología humana” – is the title of the book published by the Spanish publishing house BAC and edited by Federico Lombardi and Fernando F. Sánchez Campos. It collects the proceedings of the International Symposium “Laudato Si’ – The care of the ‘common house’, a necessary conversion to human ecology”, focusing on the topic of sustainable development.

The Symposium was held from 29^th November to 1^st December 2017 in San José, Costa Rica, and it was promoted by the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation along with the Catholic University of Costa Rica.

The book recognizes the continuity between the teachings of Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. More than analysing ecological issues mentioned by the Pope in his encyclical Laudato si’ at a global level, this volume focuses on the effect created by the pontifical document in different social contexts.

Eschatology is a topic the Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has studied a lot during his life, as a theologian and theology professor, as a prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as a Pope (especially through the encyclical Spe Salvi) and now, in the period of his life made of prayers and reflections.

The volume What the faithful hope. Christian eschatology starting with the thought of Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI, published by the Vatican Publishing House and edited by Bernardo Estrada, Pierluca Azzaro, Ermenegildo Manicardi, collects the proceedings of the Conference “Escathology: analysis and perspectives”, held in Rome in November 2016, at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.

On the occasion of the 90^th birthday of the Pope Emeritus (16^th April 2017), each of the 13 scholars who received the Ratzinger Prize from 2011 to 2016 wrote his/her paper about various topics in different languages. The papers were collected in the work Cooperatores Veritatis. Scritti in onore del Papa emerito Benedetto XVI per il 90° compleanno, (Cooperatores Veritatis. Tributes to Pope emeritus Benedict XVI on his 90^th birthday), edited by Pierluca Azzaro and father Federico Lombardi and published by the Vatican Publishing House.

The commemorative volume – an authentic “Festschrift”, following the German academic terminology – “represents an original way to know more about an international group of distinguished scholars, who shared their thoughts with Joseph Ratzinger”, father Lombardi noticed in the introduction to the volume.

The authors of the papers are: the Ambrosian Monsignor Inos Biffi, the French philosopher Rémi Brague, the Anglican biblicist Richard Burridge, the Polish theologian Msgr. Waldemar Chrostowski, the American Jesuit Brian E. Daley, the Brazilian Jesuit Mario De França Miranda, the Spanish theologian Olegario González de Cardedal, the Cistercian abbot of Heiligenkreuz in Austria Maximilian Heim, the Lebanese scholar Nabil el-Khoury, the Greek-Orthodox theologian Ioannis Kourempeles, the French theologian Anne-Marie Pelletier, the German theologian Christian Schaller, editor of the Opera omnia of Joseph Ratzinger – Benedict XVI, the Italian scholar Manlio Simonetti, well known specialist of Patristics.

“Faith and obedience are inseparably linked to charity” is written in the back cover, that is the compendium of the book “Deus caritas est. Porta di Misericordia”, that collects the proceedings of the International Symposium held in Rome on 19^th-21^st November 2015, for the 10^th anniversary of the first encyclical Benedict XVI wrote. The book is edited by Msgr. Markus Graulich and father Ralph Weimann and published by the Vatican Publishing House.

It opens with an essay cardinal Kurt Koch wrote on the Deus caritas est, in the context of Pope Benedict’s pontificate. Cardinal Josef Cordes underlined the implications the encyclical had on the charitable work of the Church and father Vincent Twomey presented the Deus caritas est in the context of Joseph Ratzinger’s theological work.

The following authors wrote on other topics of the encyclical: the point of view and the concept of truth in Deus caritas est (cardinal Gerhard L. Müller); the unity of love, the central role of Christ and the integral anthropology of the homo viator (cardinal Angelo Scola); martyr as the greatest evidence of love (Ralph Weimann); the implications the encyclical had on social and political life (Giorgio Napolitano); the relationship between the encyclical and the Holy Year of Mercy established by Pope Francis (Msgr. Rino Fisichella).

The book closes with five texts on the welcome and the perspectives of the encyclical in Africa (cardinal Robert Sarah), Latin America (Msgr. Mariano Fazio), Asia (cardinal Malcom Ranjith), Europe (Justinus Pech, OCist), USA and Australia (Romanus Cessario, OP).

“From the Bible to the Library – Benedict XVI and the Culture of the Word of God” is the topic of the lectio magistralis that cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council of Culture, held on 18^th November during the opening ceremony of the Library Biblioteca Romana Joseph Ratzinger – Benedetto XVI. Entirely dedicated to the life and the thought of the Pope Emeritus as a scholar and a Pontiff, it is part of the Library of the Pontifical Teutonic College and of the Roman Institute of the Society of Görres, in the Vatican City. The lectio was about three “ideal rooms” sharing the same capital letter B: Bible (Bibbia), Library (Biblioteca), Benedict (Benedetto XVI). 

O que faz que o homem seja homem collects the proceedings of the Second International Congress of the Foundation, held on 8^th and 9^th November 2012 in Rio de Janeiro in order to remind the strength of those days, during which the most important topics of the pontificate of Benedict XVI have been discussed.

The book El respeto a la vida un camino para la paz begins with the greetings by the Pope emeritus Benedict XVI and the letter sent by Pope Francis and signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State. Published by San Pablo publishing house, the volume collects the acts of the International Congress entitled “Respect for life, the way to peace”, that was held on 23^rd-24^th October 2014 at the Bolivarian Pontifical University of Medellin, Colombia. It contains the interventions of the following speakers: the archbishop of Medellin Ricardo Tobón Restrepo; the Dominican archbishop Jean-Louis Bruguès, archivist and librarian of the Holy Roman Church; the archbishop Ettore Balestrero, apostolic nuncio in Colombia; Msgr. Elkin Fernando Álvarez Botero, auxiliary bishop of Medellin; Msgr.Giuseppe Antonio Scotti, president of the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation, Msgr. Luis Romera Oñate, magnificent rector of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross and President of the Conference of Rectors of the Pontifical Universities of Rome; Christian Schaller, awarded with the Ratzinger Prize in 2013; Fr. Mariusz Kucinski, head of the Study Centre Ratzinger-Benedict XVI of Bydgoszcz; Cesar Mauricio Velásquez, member of the Peace and Reconciliation Commission of the Colombian Catholic Church.

Respect for life, the way to peace is the theme of the Conference, promoted by the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Foundationand held on 23rd-24th October 2014at the Pontifical Bolivarian University of Medellin, Colombia. A book edited by Pierluca Azzaro for the Libreria Editrice Vaticana publishing company, with the same title as the Conference, is available in bookshops from the end of August. As the editor Pierluca Azzaro explained “The volume is the result of the initiative of several ambassadors to the Holy See. They wanted to reflect on the importance of the Teachings of Benedict XVI for their mission and on the effects of the Pope’s visits in their respective countries”.

Ten ambassadors offered their testimonies: Bahar (Indonesia), Delgado Bermúdez (Cuba), Cardona Gutierréz (Colombia), ComlanviLoko (Benin), El Khoury (Lebanon), Greco (Italy), Hadi Al-Sader (Iraq), Ling Altamirano (Mexico), Poulides (Cyprus), Zanga (Cameroon). The archbishop Georg Gänswein, Prefect of the Pontifical Household and private secretary of Benedict XVI, made an introduction about the political speeches of Benedict XVI and his apostolic journeys abroad.

The two books The Gospels: history and Christology. The search of Joseph Ratzinger – Benedict XVI recount the proceedings of the International Symposium, organized in Rome from 24^th to 26^th October 2013. Well known scholars from different Christian confessions and various countries have tried to answer to the challenges given by the publication of the work Jesus of Nazareth, by Joseph Ratzinger- Benedict XVI. The Symposium was a significant occasion of theological reflection and of exegetical research on Jesus Christ and the Gospels. The books were published by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana Publishing Company. The first book (640 pages, 28 euros) presents the whole texts of the proceedings and workshops on Jesus’s childhood and the Last Supper, the second book (290 pages, 21 euros), is about the short papers. 

The book Miscellanea Premio Joseph Ratzinger is the first volume of a collection that the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation has begun to publish. Edited by Fr. Justinus C. Pech O. Cist and Cardinal Camillo Ruini, it collects short writings by the three scholars who received the Ratzinger Prize on 30^th June 2011: Manlio Simonetti, Olegario Gonzáles de Cardedal and Maximilian Heim.

The collection will soon include other books, with contributions by the scholars that received the Ratzinger Prize and reports of particular interest proposed during the conferences promoted by the Foundation.

As Card. Camillo Ruini, President of the Board of Directors of the Joseph Ratzinger Foundation, wrote in the preface “I would say that the aim of the Ratzinger Prize and of the whole Vatican Foundation is to promote various original examples of theology that faithfully follow the sources of our faith. They also strengthen our relationships with the God of Jesus Christ and our sense of the Church. They try to interpret our time and to rediscover it with the help of the truth of God and the man thatdisplayedhimself to us as Jesus Christ, as it is said in the great book of Gaudium et spes (n. 22), loved so much by Joseph Ratzinger”.