Pope Benedict XVI Inks Deal With Bloomsbury

By Maryann Yin 

Pope Benedict 200 (GalleyCat)Pope Benedict XVI, the predecessor of Pope Francis, has signed a deal with Bloomsbury. He plans to collaborate with Peter Seewald, a German journalist, write an autobiography entitled Last Testament.

Jacob Phillips will serve as the English language translator on this project. Both the United Kingdom and the United States divisions of the publishing house have set the release date in November 2016.

Here’s more from the press release: “So much controversy still surrounds Pope Benedict`s Papacy – in this book he addresses these controversies and reveals how at his late age, governing and reforming the Papacy and particularly the Vatican, was beyond him. But the book is also an autobiography – Pope Benedict starts by recalling his childhood in Germany under Hitler and the Nazis when he joined Hitler Youth under duress. It goes on to cover his early life as a priest and eventually his appointment as Archbishop of Munich. After becoming Pope, his account deals with the controversies that rocked the catholic world – how he enraged the Muslim world with his Regensburg speech, what he did and did not do to stamp out the clerical sexual abuse of children, the Vatileaks scandal and more.”