Denver, 30 April 2013: In his newly translated book, Pope Francis proposes a Christ-centered
understanding of human dignity that yields a comprehensive respect for life reaching
from the unborn to the impoverished.
“He clearly makes the case that Jesus
brings about a completely new vision of humanity, that human life is provided with
a dignity that goes beyond our capacity to understand,” Alejandro Bermudez, the book's
translator, told Catholic News Agency (CNA) April 23. “Therefore the most crucial
approach to human life is reverence.”
The new book, “On Heaven and Earth,”
is a conversation between Pope Francis and Abraham Skorka, a rabbi and scholar from
Buenos Aires. It was originally published in Spanish in 2010, when Francis was still
Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires. The book depicts a firm reverence
for human life that connects the Pope’s committed opposition to abortion and euthanasia
with his passionate concern for the poor and elderly.
“This reverence means
paying attention first to secure life in itself, and second the continuity of life
that comes through the relationship of one man and one woman, and third the dignity
of the quality of that life,” explained Bermudez, who is also executive director of
Catholic News Agency.
“So for Pope Francis, it is a continuity … the zeal for
the defense of life and of marriage is exactly the same zeal for human life that brings
him to come out in the defense of the poor, and most specifically of all of those
who are suffering.”
Bermudez explained that “there are many forms of poverty
which goes beyond just the physical, and Pope Francis has been extremely sensitive
to any kind of human suffering.”
In “On Heaven and Earth,” Pope Francis speaks
at length about the needs of the poor and vulnerable. He says that the elderly are
unfortunately among those who are seen as “disposable” by today's “consumerist, hedonist
and narcissistic society.”
In the same work, the Pope explained that the death
penalty “once was one of the punishments that Christianity accepted, but today the
moral conscience has become much more refined.”
“On Heaven and Earth” is now
available in English from Image Books, an imprint of Random House, in print, digital
and audio formats. Until recently, the works of Pope Francis have been available
only in his native tongue. Two works on Jesuit spirituality, entitled “Humility, the
road towards God” and “Corruption and sin,” are being published this month in Italian.