Questioning the Pope

In the best possible way:

Never has a Pope, in a book-length interview, dealt so directly with such wide-ranging and controversial issues as Pope Benedict XVI does in Light of the World. Taken from a recent week-long series of interviews with veteran journalist Peter Seewald, this book tackles head-on some of the greatest issues facing the world of our time. Seewald poses such forthright questions to Pope Benedict as:

• What caused the clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church?
• Was there a "cover up"?
• Have you considered resigning?
• Does affirming the goodness of the human body mean a plea for "better sex"?
• Can there be a genuine dialogue with Islam?
• Should the Church rethink Catholic teaching on priestly celibacy, women priests, contraception, and same-sex relationships?
• Holy Communion for divorced-and-remarried Catholics?
• Is there a schism in the Catholic Church?
• Should there be a Third Vatican Council?
• Is there any hope for Christian unity?
• Is Christianity the only truth?
• Can the Pope really speak for Jesus Christ?
• How can the Pope claim to be "infallible"?
• Is there a "dictatorship of relativism" today?

Twice before these two men held wide-ranging discussions, which became the best-selling books Salt of the Earth and God and the World. Then, Seewald's discussion partner was Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Vatican's chief doctrinal office. Now, Joseph Ratzinger is Pope Benedict XVI, the spiritual leader of the world's over one billion Catholics...