Peter Seewald
Peter Seewald has worked as a journalist for Stern, Spiegel, and the Suddeutsche Zeitung and is one of the most admired authors on religion in Germany today. Throughout his career he has remained one of the writers closest to Pope Benedict and has interviewed him for countless hours. His book of conversations with Pope Benedict, Last Testament was published in 2016, and the first volume of his landmark biography of Benedict XVI in late 2020.
All Books By Peter Seewald
Benedict XVI: A Life
- By: Peter Seewald
- Narrator: Jim Meskimen
- Length: 19 hours 44 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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4.46(82 ratings)
The long-awaited and authoritative biography of Pope Benedict XVI, a giant of the Catholic Church
Benedict XVI: A Life offers insight into the young life and rise through the Church’s ranks of a man who would become a hero and a lightning rod for Catholics the world over. Based on countless hours of interviews in Rome with Benedict himself, this much-anticipated two-volume biography is the definitive record of the life of Joseph Ratzinger and the legacy of Pope Benedict XVI.
This first volume follows the early life of the future pope, from his days growing up in Germany and his conscription into the Hitler Youth during World War II to his career as an academic theologian and eventual Archbishop of Munich. The second volume, set to be published in 2021, will cover his move to Rome under Pope John Paul II, his ascension to the papacy, and his controversial retirement and news-making statements under his successor, Pope Francis I.
This necessary companion to Benedict’s own memoir, Last Testament, is the fullest account to date of the life of a radical Catholic leader who has continued to make news while cloistered in retirement in the Vatican gardens.
... Read moreBenedict XVI: A Life
- By: Peter Seewald
- Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 24 hours 22 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.46(82 ratings)
The second volume of Peter Seewald’s magisterial life of Pope Benedict covers the period from the Second Vatican Council (1965-68) to the present day.
Emeritus Pope Benedict commands both adulation and unremitting criticism. In this second volume of Peter Seewald’s authoritative biography, the story runs from the Second Vatican Council (1965-68) that shaped Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s conservative ideas about the role of the Catholic Church, through his short, scandal-ridden papacy and unprecedented resignation. Volume Two introduces listeners to the Pope Emeritus living in the Vatican Gardens, contemplating the future of the Church and his controversial legacy within it.
We see how Benedict was influenced by the Vatican Council and the ensuing political unrest all over Europe in the 1960s. Appointed in 1981 as Prefect of the Congregation of Doctrine of the Faith, and quickly nicknamed “God’s Rottweiler,” he was intransigent on the controversial issues of abortion, contraception, gay rights, and gay marriage. But elected Pope in 2005, his tenure of office was riven with shocking revelations of controversy and scandal and it seemed that by his resignation in 2013, he was incapable of handling the complexities of the Church in the modern world.
Vatileaks, sexual abuse by priests, the Regensburg speech which became the spark of an eruption of rage in the Muslim world–all these hit the world’s media headlines.
Peter Seewald is the only person close enough to Benedict to assess the man himself and to uncover the truth about so many of the controversial issues surrounding this papacy.
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