Newsroom Home
About the Book
About the Author
Press Releases
Media Resources |
Press Releases
THE POPE OF HOPE – WHAT’S THE TAKE AWAY AMERICA?
Papal Biographer Available for Analysis on Historic Visit
NORTH HAVEN, Conn., April 21, 2008 – The papal plane, Shepherd One, departed JFK Airport last night concluding a six day historic visit that surprised many people. Despite naming his trip, “Christ Our Hope”, many Americans were unsure what the theme of his trip would be, but both critics and champions of the world’s largest Christian denomination agree that what he brought to the United States was a renewal and revival of hope in the midst of a troubled nation.
To the American people he urged, "… move forward with firm resolve to use wisely the blessings of freedom, in order to build a future of hope for coming generations." Brennan Pursell, author of the newly-released Benedict of Bavaria, says that the message of hope is a theme that has marked the Pontiff’s entire life.
"Benedict's tireless proclamation of hope has devastated a quarter-century of caricatures about Cardinal Ratzinger. No one, after this apostolic visit, can seriously maintain that Benedict XVI is a mean-spirited hard-liner. Look no further than his own life to truly understand that his own survival against terrible loss and trials has formed the man that America got to touch and hear directly. The challenge for Americans will be living out his requests,” says Pursell.
On the Pope’s candor regarding the scandals, Pursell says this, “The Pope has now left no room for doubt about his stance on the pedophilia crisis in the Church in America. Such behaviors are totally unacceptable, and bishops must move heaven and earth to make sure they never happen again. But the whole Church in America, all the faithful, must come together, in prayer, charity, and penance, to make sure that purification and true healing can take place. Benedict has said and done more than anyone expected or predicted."
And what about the youth, whom critics expected would reject this Pope as old and irrelevant? "The youth responded to Benedict with the same joyous outpouring of emotion that they bestowed on his predecessor. Their love of him shocked observers. What they see in Benedict is a man of conviction and depth – an example of survival to stand in the gap against relativistic pressure and materialism", observed Pursell.
During the Pope’s visit Pursell’s book was announced on the House of Representatives floor as a ground-breaking biography and was presented in person to the Pontiff at Catholic University of America. Benedict of Bavaria is the most well-rounded and authentic portrait of the Holy Father available.
To schedule an interview with Brennan Pursell, please contact Ashley Walker at The Maximus Group 678-990-9032.
-30-
For Pope Benedict XVI, Defending the Right to Life Is Very Personal
NORTH HAVEN, CT, Apr. 13, 2008 – Many people are expecting Pope Benedict XVI to speak out in defense of human life and against abortion during his visit to the United States next week. What few people, realize, however, is that the pope knows firsthand what happens when a society refuses to defend the most defenseless of its citizens.
As a boy of fourteen, Joseph Ratzinger had a cousin who was born with Down's Syndrome, only a bit younger than himself. In 1941, German state "therapists" came to boy's house and probably informed the parents of the government regulation that prohibited mentally handicapped children from remaining in their parents' home. In spite of the family's pleas, the representatives of the Nazi state took the child away. The Ratzinger family never saw him again. Later the family learned that he had "died," most likely murdered, for being merely "undesirable," a blemish in the race, and a drain on the productivity of the nation. This was Joseph Ratzinger's first experience of a murderous philosophy that asserts that some people are disposable.
Author Brennan Pursell heard this horrifying, heart-wrenching story while collecting material for his groundbreaking biography, Benedict of Bavaria (Circle Press, 2008). While most available biographies of the pope are based on Western news coverage, Pursell, who is fluent in German, went to Germany, especially to Bavaria, where the Pope is from and collected his information from what he calls “intimate sources” - the friends, neighbors, colleagues, and coworkers who have known Joseph Ratzinger for years.
As the pope said during his visit to Austria in 2007, the right to life is the first of all human rights. To speak, then, of a “right” to abort an unborn child is a contradiction in terms. This is a truth that, for Pope Benedict, is self-evident. But how will he convey this message in America where the abortion movement is so firmly entrenched? “He will present the Catholic teaching as a positive,” Pursell says. “But at the same time he will be unapologetic about it.”
To schedule an interview with Brennan Pursell or to review Benedict of Bavaria, please contact Ashley Walker at The Maximus Group 678-990-9032.
-30-
THE POPE: AN ORDINARY CHRISTIAN
New Biography Reveals Origins of Benedict XVI’s Attachment to Traditional Christianity
NORTH HAVEN, Conn., April 2, 2008 – Joseph Ratzinger once described himself as “a perfectly ordinary Christian.” As Brennan Pursell, author of Benedict of Bavaria, discovered in his visits to the Pope’s homeland, Joseph Ratzinger and his family were no different than their neighbors. They prayed daily, went to church on Sundays and holy days, and kept up the customs and devotional practices of the Church year. Over time it would become clear, however, that young Joseph was different from the other boys in the village—his was a profound faith illuminated by a truly brilliant mind.
“Faith in Jesus Christ and fidelity to the message of the Gospel lie at the heart of Benedict XVI’s identity. While other great minds have drifted into the realm of speculative theology, Ratzinger drew upon his study of history, philosophy, and theology to make the case that sacred truths do not change, that what the Church has taught from the beginning is still true today,” says Pursell.
Ratzinger could have spent his life as a member of a university faculty, but as Pursell shares with his readers, Ratzinger felt called to be more than a professor—he was called to be a teacher, a spiritual guide, and a defender of the faith.
For this biography of Pope Benedict, Pursell spent long periods in Germany, consulting local sources, and meeting people who knew Joseph Ratzinger (Pursell is fluent in German, and his wife is from Bavaria). As a result, this biography is free of the distortions, misinformation, and misunderstandings that afflict so much of the English-language coverage of the pope.
Pursell’s portrait reveals a man who is gentle and patient, who never loses his temper, who knows what he believes and why he believes it—and who has dedicated his life to sharing faith with the world. According to Pursell, that is why the Pope’s first encyclical, or teaching document, was entitled, God Is Love. Benedict believes that the love of God draws all people to the truth, and that once we surrender to that love, even the most troubled life has meaning and a purpose. This pope is not “God’s Rottweiler,” or “the Enforcer,” but a Christian pledged to bring God’s love to a weary world.
To schedule an interview with Brennan Pursell, please contact Ashley Walker at The Maximus Group, 678-990-9032.
-30-
WHO IS THIS POPE FROM BAVARIA?
Soon-to-be-Released Papal Biography Reveals the Heart and Soul of Benedict XVI
NEW HAVEN, CT, April, 2008 – Was Joseph Ratzinger a Nazi? Have Catholic theologians been under attack since “God’s Rottweiler” became pope? Is Pope Benedict’s revision of the Good Friday prayer for the Jews insulting? Why did Benedict XVI bring back the traditional Latin Mass—is he trying to turn back the clock?
These questions and others like them try Brennan Pursell’s patience. As a professor of history he knows that a man’s character cannot be captured in a sound bite. And as frequent visitor to Bavaria (Pursell is fluent in German), it frustrates him that because Pope Benedict lived through the Nazi era there is a suspicion that he harbors Nazi sympathies.
Two years ago Pursell set out to write a biography of Joseph Ratzinger titled Benedict of Bavaria, which would reveal the true nature of the man—how his mind works, what his heart loves, and where his loyalties lie. Unlike other books about Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict, Pursell decided to use predominantly sources in German. In German publications he found the reminiscences of people who knew Joseph Ratzinger long before he left his homeland for a post at the Vatican. He found interviews with Ratzinger that had been published years earlier in German magazines and newspapers, or aired on German TV stations. And he read German books about Ratzinger that are unknown in the United States.
Pursell found that the Pope’s Bavarian heritage, like his Catholic faith, is an inextricable part of who he is. Bavaria is the most Catholic region of Germany, a place where the local culture is steeped in all things Catholic. Joseph Ratzinger absorbed these influences consciously and unconsciously and came to treasure them. He also acquired other Bavarian traits—reverence for tradition and continuity; a style of worship in which the focus is always on God and not on one’s self; a love for beauty; and a steadfastness devotion for one’s homeland.
For a well-rounded portrait of his subject, Pursell also visited every town where Joseph Ratzinger lived, the schools where he studied and taught, and the churches and shrines—particularly the shrine of Our Lady of Altötting—where Ratzinger prayed. The result is the most personal, most authentic account of the life of the man who became Pope Benedict XVI.
This new book, published through Circle Press, will be released in late March, just prior to the Pope’s historic United States visit.
To schedule an interview with Brennan Pursell, please contact Ashley Walker at The Maximus Group 678-990-9032.
-30-
|
|
