Who writes the popes' General Audiences?

[CharlesdeFoucld]

As we all know, recent popes have given short talks every Wednesday based around general themes. Does each respective pope write these addresses himself, or does a ‘speech writer’ of sorts craft these messages? I.e., would reading the general audiences of Pope Benedict XVI, for example, reflect something of his personal mind and experience, or should it be taken more anonymously as the voice of the Church expressed through the mouth of St. Peter, but having little to do with the particular person delivering it?

For example, there was a cycle of talks on the psalms that was begun by Pope John Paul II and completed by Pope Benedict XVI. If the talks were written by an anonymous assistant, it would make sense to read the whole cycle together as a unity. If each particular pope is the personal author of his own talks, it might make sense to read the cycle as two separate works, one by Pope John Paul II and one by Pope Benedict XVI.

 

[Jon_S_1]

As we all know, recent popes have given short talks every Wednesday based around general themes. Does each respective pope write these addresses himself, or does a ‘speech writer’ of sorts craft these messages? I.e., would reading the general audiences of Pope Benedict XVI, for example, reflect something of his personal mind and experience, or should it be taken more anonymously as the voice of the Church expressed through the mouth of St. Peter, but having little to do with the particular person delivering it?

For example, there was a cycle of talks on the psalms that was begun by Pope John Paul II and completed by Pope Benedict XVI. If the talks were written by an anonymous assistant, it would make sense to read the whole cycle together as a unity. If each particular pope is the personal author of his own talks, it might make sense to read the cycle as two separate works, one by Pope John Paul II and one by Pope Benedict XVI.

I don’t know the answer to this. I had always assumed they wrote their own stuff. But with as busy as they are I would not be surprised if they had people helping them in this.

Im sure its not a blind reading of someone else’s work though.

 

[CharlesdeFoucld]

I’ve been thinking about this a little more. Pope John Paul II’s first cycle of general audiences was on the Theology of the Body, on which he was a pioneer. It seems unlikely anyone would’ve written this for him.

The question came up for me when I noticed that Pope Benedict’s audiences seemed to have a lot of citations from Italian authors. It caused me to wonder if he was particularly influenced by Italian theology, or if an Italian was writing them.

But it’s clear to me that the general themes, content, and structures, at least, are chosen by the popes themselves (i.e., Pope John Paul II on the theology of the body; Pope Benedict on the patristic tradition, etc.).

 

[Joe_5859]

I don’t know that we’ll ever know, but I wouldn’t look at it as an either/or proposition. Lots of people use ghost writers. But that doesn’t mean that the content does not reflect the mind of the one whose name is attached.

When Benedict took over the Catechesis on Vespers, he also shaved off the duplication (e.g. Revelation 15:3-4 which is on Friday of all four weeks). JPII had been giving another reflection for such passages, even if they had already appeared earlier. Benedict skipped over them.

To me, that suggests that they were doing their own thing. Though, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had help (or even if Benedict utilized JPII’s notes as I’m sure he was planning more than a week in advance).