Pope Benedict is Finishing Book Before Tackling Encyclical

Joaquín Navarro Valls, director of the Vatican press office, said that the pope currently is focusing on his book project, which has been in the works for several years, and not his first encyclical as previously reported. While the Vatican spokesman claims the topic of the book is a secret, I think we can better go with the publisher:

"On The Way To Jesus Christ" – the newest book by Pope Benedict XVI which will be released exclusively by Ignatius Press in October 2005 – is about the true Jesus, the Jesus of the Gospels, who is "quite different, demanding and bold." This Jesus is controversial, inconvenient, and brings an often unpopular – and largely unfollowed – message.

Unless there are two books...