Evangelii Gaudium: Rome’s Best Seller Since Vatican II

One year after Pope Francis’ election as Roman pontiff, the Catholic Truth Society has announced that it’s sold more copies of the pope’s first apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium than it has any publication since the documents of Vatican II.

The Catholic Herald, Britain’s Catholic newspaper, reports that the CTS has just printed its fifth edition of the apostolic exhortation.  Since the document’s release in December 2013, more than 25,000 copies of Evangelii Gaudium–more than twice the number of any previous papal documents–have been sold.  This is the highest figure for any Vatican document since Unitatis Redintegratio, the Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Ecumenism, which sold 85,000 copies in Britain.

Pierpaolo Finaldi, managing editor of the CTS, reported that

“The sales of Evangelii Gaudium are considerably more than we’ve seen for even the great encyclicals of John Paul II and Benedict XVI. As publishers to the Holy See we’re really happy to see the words of Pope Francis becoming an ecclesial event in Britain and being bought in great numbers by dioceses and parishes alike. If we as British Catholics can emulate the enthusiasm for evangelisation that shines through the text then it will be good news, not just for the Church but for the country at large.”

Some British bishops have bought the document for all of their priests.  Parishes are encouraged to buy Evangelii Gaudium, as well.  Finaldi added,

“We’re just really happy to see Vatican documents becoming an ecclesiastical event because sometimes they don’t get the response they deserve.”