Romana

On October 2, 2008, the first edition of The Forge appeared in Chinese, using traditional ideograms. It was published with a printing of 2000 copies by Spring Publications Ltd. of Hong Kong. The title in Cantonese is Lihn Louh. With this printing, all the main books of St. Josemaría are now available in the Chinese language.

In December 2008, the publisher Le Laurier brought out in Lebanon the first Arabic language edition of Christ Is Passing By, with a printing of 2,000 copies.

The Way has just been published in Kinyarwanda, a language of Rwanda (1,500 copies), and in the Malayalam language of Kerala, India, with an initial printing of 4,000 copies.

In Russia, The Forge has been published in the Russian language for the first time, while in Germany the third and final volume of the biography of St. Josemaría by Andrés Vázquez de Prada, Der Gründer des Opus Dei: Die römischen Jahre, was presented in five cities (Cologne, Stuttgart, Munich, Essen and Berlin).

The book St. Josemaría in St. Peter’s Basilica provides a photographic documentary of Tuscan artist Romano Cosci’s creation of a statue of St. Josemaría, which was placed in 2005 on one of the outer walls of St. Peter’s. The book, edited by Giancarlo Polenghi, includes photos by Aurelio Amendola and other photographers along with a commentary by Guillaume Derville and Michele Dolz. It has been published in two bilingual editions: English-Spanish and Italian-French.

Blanco y los viajes a Barbastro (Blanco and the Trips to Barbastro) is a new children’s book on the early years of the life of St. Josemaría, from his birth to his first communion. Its author is Carlos Zambrano, a first year literature student at the National University of St. Mark in Lima, Peru. The illustration is provided by Luis Chumpitaz Gonzales from the School of Art of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. The book, produced by the Association for Life and the Family of Peru, was presented at the Feria International del Libro (International Book Fair).

After completing her book Educazione alla responsabilità in San Josemaría Escrivá (2007), Giuseppina Capozzi Matarrese has continued her in-depth study of the message of the Founder of Opus Dei. Her latest work, Educazione al valore della famiglia in San Josemaría Escrivá, was published in September 2008. It considers various aspects of the saint’s teaching on the family, and provides testimonies from persons who have implemented these teachings in their own family life.