It was billed as a publishing event of, well, biblical proportions. Pope John Paul II's Crossing the Threshold of Hope, 229 pages of personal reflections, went on sale in 35 countries. Knopf, which paid $6 million for English-language rights, hopes to sell 1 million copies at $20 apiece. Excerpts:
Early life. "I think of the Warsaw uprising of 1944 -- the desperate revolt of my contemporaries who sacrificed everything.... I was a part of that generation, and I must say that the heroism of my contemporaries helped me to define my personal vocation."
Communism. "It would be simplistic to say that Divine Providence caused the fall of communism .... It fell as a consequence of its own mistakes and abuses. It proved to be a medicine more dangerous than the disease itself."
Abortion. "It is not possible to speak of the right to choose when a clear moral evil is involved, when what is at stake is the commandment `Do not kill.'... A child conceived in its mother's womb is never an unjust aggressor; it is a defenseless being that is waiting to be welcomed and helped."
Judaism. "I can vividly remember the Jews who gathered every Saturday at the synagogue behind our school. Both religious groups, Catholics and Jews, were united, I presume, by the awareness that they prayed to the same God."
The Vatican says proceeds from the book will go to charity.
