Pope's third book on Jesus due Nov. 20

VATICAN CITY, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI's final book in his trilogy on the life of Jesus will be released at the Vatican Nov. 20, publishers announced.

The Italian edition of "The Childhood of Jesus," written in the pope's native German, will have an initial run of 300,000 copies and will be published by Rizzoli and Libreria Editrice Vatican (Vatican Library Publishers), the Italian news agency ANSA reported Wednesday, adding Rizzoli is negotiating with publishers in 32 countries for translations of the book into 20 languages, compared to nine translations for the pope's previous book.

Given the lack of historical sources on Jesus' early life, the pope has admitted his new book should not be considered authoritative.

"Anyone is free to contradict me," he said earlier this year.

The second installment, published in March, was received with acclaim by religious scholars, and included the pope's emphatic denial that Jews were to blame for Jesus' death, ANSA said.

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