(ANS - Rome) – Now towards the end of the Year of Consecrated Life called by Pope Francis, the Libreria Editrice Vaticana is publishing a book called "A Journey in Religious Life". It contains fourteen conversations with superiors of different religious institutes. The author is the journalist Riccardo Benotti, past pupil of the Faculty of Sciences of Social Communication of the Salesian Pontifical University. In one of the interviews he engages in conversation with Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, tenth Successor of Don Bosco.

The journalist’s journey into religious life takes him along the road of the charisms of the Church to discover a very varied world. The superiors interviewed are Fr Notker Wolf (Benedictine), Fr Fernando Millán Romeral (Carmelite), Fr Mauro-Giuseppe Lepori (Cistercian), Friar Bruno Cadoré (Dominican), Bro. Jesús Ethane Arrondo (John of God Brothers), Friar Michael Anthony Perry (Friars Minor) Fr Antoine Kerhuel (Jesuit), Fr Eduardo Robles Gil Orvañanos (Legionaries of Christ), Bro. Emili Turú Rofes (Marist Brothers), Fr Flavio Peloso (Sons of Divine Providence), Fr Valdir José De Castro (Pauline), Fr Ángel Fernández Artime (Salesian), Fr Heinz Kulüke (SVD) and Fr David Kinnear Glenday (Union of Superiors General).

The interviewees spoke of their private life and what it means to make a definitive choice such as that of consecration, confronting the difficulties and challenges of the present time. In the discussion with the author there are references to sensitive issues - abuse, clericalism, money management, homosexuality between religious, the crisis in vocations, relations with Islam and the role of the laity – as well as reflections on important historical moments that some Institutes are going through as in the case of the Franciscans.

The preface is written by Fr Timothy Radcliffe, English theologian, formerly Master of the Dominican Order, greatly appreciated worldwide as a writer and lecturer.

Published 20/1/2016