Pope Benedict XVI

“Una Sola Chiesa,” (“Only One Church”) is a book, released Sept. 1, that demonstrates continuity by presenting excerpts of general audiences talks from Pope Benedict and Pope Francis on the themes of church, family, prayer, faith and mercy.

Peter Seewald, the author who has published four wide-ranging book-length interviews with the retired pope, was quoted in the Aug. 3 edition of the Bavarian newspaper Passauer Neue Presse.

According to Vatican News, Msgr. Ratzinger died in Regensburg, Germany, where he had been hospitalized. Pope Benedict, 93, flew to Regensburg June 18 to be with his ailing brother.

Retired Pope Benedict XVI “is well,” although the coronavirus pandemic restrictions mean he will receive no visitors April 16, his 93rd birthday.

In his 38-page essay in the book, retired Pope Benedict did not mention specifically the practice of ordaining married men to the priesthood in the Christian East.

At the request of retired Pope Benedict XVI, his name will be removed as co-author of a book defending priestly celibacy, said Cardinal Robert Sarah, the Vatican official who coordinated work on the book.

Since marriage and priesthood both demand the total devotion and self-giving of a man to his vocation, “it does not seem possible to realize both vocations simultaneously,” retired Pope Benedict XVI said in a new book.

Catholic screenwriter Anthony McCarten focuses on the two pontiffs, but also on the struggles of young Jesuit Father Jorge Bergoloio, the future Pope Francis, in Argentina during the South American nation’s “dirty war” years.