5 Questions with the author of "The Face of God"

 

What inspired this book?

This question should be: who inspired this book, instead of what. And the answer to this, I have no doubt about it, can only be Our Lady of Guadalupe. I had written a book about her and her miraculous image in Mexico, which is certainly not made by man’s hand – and is nevertheless nearly completely unknown in Europe. I travelled around the world for years doing research. But the very day (February 2004) when I held the first copy of this brand new book in my hands, (María of Guadalupe, Shaper of History, Shaper of Hearts) a new door opened which made it clear in an instant that I had to write a new book of the “True Image” of Her Son, too, which was unknown to the entire world at the time.

What part of it was most fascinating to write?

It is hard to say. To tell the truth it has been fascinating from the first to the last line – in a book which has not really ended yet. New chapters are added to it from year to year, although my book remains to be the true logbook of this discovery forever.

How have people responded? What's been the feedback?

It’s different from person to person and from heart to heart. Everybody is reacting differently. I saw people crying and laughing. Some of them see and realize its divine dimension at first glance. For others – including myself – it is a process in which the image is revealed to them. In the last years – namely after Pope Benedict XVI visited the Holy Icon on September 1st 2006 – I was witness to the first waves of a growing Tsunami of pilgrims to Manoppello. This discovery might look too good to be true for quite a number of people (particularly those who never have seen the Holy Face). But it is true – and it is going to change the course of the world. The Mexicans will discover it in the near future, and then Americans, the Canadians, the Chinese and so forth. The world is going to realize what is there on that remote hill in the Abruzzi mountains.

What were you trying to get through to readers of the book?

God has left an icon of His face on earth, inexplicably imprinted on two different cloths in Manoppello and Turin. Both pieces fit as one - as two pieces of a broken seal. Now we can look at these mysterious images for the first time in history in a unique new way – beginning instead of ending with the well-founded assessment that both of them are as real and authentic as anything can be. Both of them lead us right back into the empty tomb of Jesus of Nazareth outside the walls of Jerusalem as no other document, back to the moment of the origin of these images in the early hours of April 8th in the year 30

What's next for you?

To convey and get the message of this discovery through to the world is a challenge for a lifetime.