MAKING ROOM FOR THE NEW POPE

One of the little known "perks" of being elected pope is getting your very own number and your very own shelf in our monastery library. Now our librarian, Sr. Maria of the Cross, has the pleasant task of assigning a new call number to the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's books. Any books and documents written by Pope Benedict XVI, and any biographies or studies of the pope, will be placed on this shelf. The shelf above, burgeoning with books, belongs to (you guessed it!) the prolific Pope John Paul II.
Libraries are very important (and much-frequented) places in Dominican monasteries, in which we get to exercise our observance of study. Our library boasts of close to 10,000 titles in such subjects as philosophy, Scripture, patristics, and theology, along with a good sampling of non-fiction and fiction books.