Questions and Answers

By Pope Benedict XVI

Book Overview

Life can be successful only if we have the courage to be adventurous ... Pope Benedict XVIDiscover the Pope s insightful, personable, and refreshingly accessible responses to the questions we all want... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1592764398
• ISBN13: 9781592764396
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: Our Sunday Visitor
• Length: 175 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.8" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Important for all irrespective of view of life.

This book is essential for all persons no matter how they look upon This book is essential for all persons no matter how they look upon religious matters. Pope Benedict XVI answers in an understanding and prudent way the questions put forward from a variety of people. I am glad that this book was brought to my attention.

Pope Benedict XVI Answers

Questions and Answers offers a surprisingly enjoyable compilation of the one-on-one sessions between Pope Benedict XVI and various groups with whom he has met over the first years of his pontificate. The idea for the sessions was introduced not long after his election in 2005 and has become something of a regular feature of his audiences. Two especially intriguing aspects of the book jump out immediately at the reader. First, there are the pope's answers to the wide-ranging questions posed to him by such groups as children preparing for First Communion, Italian youth, and especially the priests of the diocese of Rome and Albano. It comes as little surprise that Benedict is able to answer all of the questions posed to him in exacting and equally sweeping fashion (he was, after all, one of the foremost theologians of the 20th century at the time of his election). But the capacity of the pontiff to reply in direct, clear, and pastoral terms demonstrates both his decades of labor as a professor but also his surprising ability as pope to be strikingly pastoral. The light pastoral touch has been apparent since his election (and his memorable homily at his installation), and his replies to the questions here are even more so. He speaks to the children in terms that are readily understood by a young mind even as they are obviously grounded in abiding faith. His replies to the priests are also straightforward in his real-world advice even as he notes the essential unity that must exist between the spiritual life and the pastoral ministry of a priest. If the pope's answers are revealing so too are the questions. The issues posed to the pope by the children are ones that Catholic youth readily ask their parents (such as the one from a girl named Andrea who asks, "In preparing me for my First Communion day, my catechist told me that Jesus is present in the Eucharist. But how? I can't see him!"). The questions from the priests also point to the stresses and challenges faced by the priests in parish service and the sometimes heart-breaking situations they must try to solve and heal. In that sense, Questions and Answers shows the struggles of faith, hope, and love that all Christians must confront. And in his answers, Pope Benedict XVI proves why we would all do well to listen to him. This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in glimpsing the pope at his most articulate and also his most extemporaneous.

Pastoral sensibilities

Like the best-selling book-length interviews Salt of the Earth and God and the World, Questions and Answers features Pope Benedict answering a range of questions about the Catholic faith. Unlike those earlier books, in which the questions took the form of a lengthy interview conducted by a prominent German journalist, the questions here come from a variety of inquirers: children, students, seminarians, and priests. Because of that, the questions are often less theological and more practical. This book will not tell you everything you need to know about Catholicism, nor does it pretend to be a catechism. But it will give you additional insights into the Catholic faith and reveal the pastoral sensibilities of the current pontiff.

Great collection of the Pope's answers

I just finished Questions and Answers by Pope Benedict XVI put out by Our Sunday Visitor which is a collection of various question and answer sessions from various audiences that includes sessions with children, youth, and clergy at multiple locations. This s a very worthwhile collection and with the amount of these type sessions I am sure we will see more of these books in the future. Pope Benedict XVI really opens himself up to these types of sessions which I think for the most part of quite unique in the history of the Church. The questions themselves are interesting, but it is the way the pope answers these questions in his own style that is quite remarkable. Reading through his sometimes lengthily answers you would think he had days to work on responses to questions put before him ahead of time. He is an amazing extemporaneous speaker and his answers reveal just how thoroughly he has integrated the faith and is able to speak on almost any topic to reveal his knowledge and contemplation on a subject. It is obvious as to the level of detail that he has given to these subjects in his own mind before hand. I also found it quite amazing his ability to really answer a question and put together a synthesis of Church teaching and his own practical experience to give almost a mediation on a question. The book opens up with questions from children and I think they way he answers them is the very model that people working with children and youth in regards to religious education should follow. He is able to answer serious questions to them in a serious manner that does not "talk down" to them, but at the same time making it understandable to them. He sees no reason to water down a serious subject just because he is talking to children and is able to tailor it to their intellects in such a way that even as an adult I found his answers fruitful for me. His answers, especially to fellow priests, are often long discourses - but he doesn't talk just to hear his voice. In one question he felt that the questioner had answered his own query and the Pope simple said for other to listen to what this priest had to say and not feel the need to add anything to it. You get the feel of his real humility when he answers questions in that he defines the limits of what he is able to answer and when speaking to clergy talks about their pastoral experience in taking his suggestions in. The questions run the gamut and some of them overlap. I especially enjoyed his discussions on marriage and his insight in regards to marriage. I loved how he referred to one large family as a parish. Some of his answers in regard to science are quite interesting especially in regards to the recent controversy and protests at the La Sapienza University in Rome calling the Pope anti-science. In on answer he talks about Galileo the great and the proper and supporting roles of faith and science. In another he talks about the false tensions between creationists and evolutionists and where th