Book-length interview with Pope to be published late this year

Pope Benedict XVI has granted a series of in-depth interviews with a German journalist. The Pope’s responses to questions about the state of the Church and his pontificate will form the basis for a book to be published before the end of this year.

Peter Seewald interviewed the Holy Father during a series of meetings in July, the Vatican has disclosed. Seewald worked with the Pope on a similar project more than a decade ago; the journalist’s interviews with then-Cardinal Ratzinger became the book Salt of the Earth. Appearing first in 1996, Salt of the Earth was acclaimed because of the future Pope’s candid and thorough responses to questions about the challenges facing the Church. (Seewald later disclosed that his conversations with Cardinal Ratzinger prompted him to return to the active practice of the Catholic faith.)

The new book will be published first in German and Italian, according to the papal spokesman Father Federico Lombardi.