Pope Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) proves to be an Irish bestseller
Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), which was authored solely by Pope Francis and published on 24 November 2013 to mark the conclusion of the Year of Faith in the Catholic Church, has proved to be a bestseller in Veritas bookshops. To date 11,000 copies of this Apostolic Exhortation have been sold across the north and south of Ireland.
According to the Director of Veritas Ms Maura Hyland, “The sales of Evangelii Gaudium have broken records for such a publication. Heretofore Veritas would have expected to have sold about five hundred copies of an Apostolic Exhortation, however due to the great interest shown in Pope Francis by our customers, we planned for an official print run of three thousand copies – and these sold out almost immediately. To date Veritas has sold 11,000 copies and Evangelii Gaudium is now on its fourth print-run. Evangelii Gaudium has appeared in the list of Irish best sellers in the non-fiction category on a number of occasions.”
Ms Hyland continued, “Clearly there exists a huge level of public interest in what Pope Francis is saying and doing. Veritas is very much looking forward to the publication of The Church of Mercy: My Vision for the Church, written by Pope Francis It will be published by the Jesuit Loyola Press in Chicago and will be the first book from the Pope since he was elected in March 2013. Veritas expects this book to be available in our shops by the early summer.”
ENDS
- The Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium is priced at €4.99 and can be purchased on any of the eleven Veritas shops in Ireland (Abbey Street, Dublin; Blanchardstown Shopping Centre; Carey’s Lane, Cork’ Shipquay Street, Derry; O’Connell Street, Ennis; Lower Main Street, Letterkenny; Sallins Road, Naas; Park Street, Monaghan; Adelaide Street, Sligo; Donegall Street, Belfast; The Mall, Newry) and in the Veritas shop based in the popular pilgrimage site of Lourdes in France. For a full range of Veritas titles, please see www.veritasbooksonline.ie
- An Apostolic Exhortation is a papal document which, as the name suggests, exhorts people to implement a particular aspect of the Church’s life and teaching. Its purpose is not to teach new doctrine, but to suggest how Church teachings and practices can be best applied today.
- Evangelii Gaudium challenges every member of the Church to ask what it means to be a follower of Christ and calls everyone to preach the good news in today’s world. Evangelii Gaudium touches on many of the themes of Francis’ papacy, including obligations Christians have to the poor, and the duty to establish and maintain just economic, political, and legal orders. Francis says that the world “can no longer trust in the unseen forces and the invisible hand of the market” and calls for action beyond a simple welfare mentality that attacks the structural causes of inequality. Refocusing society’s priorities, the Pope asks how “it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?” Evangelii Gaudium was written in response to the most recent meeting of the Synod of Bishops, which took place in the Vatican during October, 2012, and was devoted to the subject of the new evangelization, so that is the subject of Evangelii Gaudium. This Synod took place before Pope Francis was elected on 13 March 2013. Evangelii Gaudium was written by Pope Francis to mark the end of the Catholic Church’s Year of Faith, which ran from 11 October 2012 to 24 November 2013.
For media contact: Catholic Communications Office Maynooth: Martin Long 00353 (0) 86 172 7678 and Brenda Drumm 00353 (0) 87 310 4444
