INTRODUCTION
This series which I am bringing out for you, dear reader, under the title So many years with the problems of people, contains those questions which I have been able to select for you from among the thousands which I have been asked, since the setting up of the Episcopate of Religious Institutions and Church Teaching in 1962, until today. Its first part deals with questions concerning the Holy Bible, such as verses which appear difficult to understand, or which some people misinterpret, or which require explanation and clarification. In that part I have answered some forty questions which are repeatedly asked by many people. The second part is concerned with questions of theology and doctrine which preoccupy people’s minds. I have as far as possible taken care to preserve a style that would be easy for all to understand, and in that part I have replied to some thirty five questions which might be of interest to all. This third part concerns all kinds of spiritual questions, along with questions which circulate in society which require answering, such as a question about drinking wine, and another about organ transplants, and a third about how to solve problems, which I have answered in some detail.
This part comprises some forty-four questions in the majority of which I have taken special care to give an answer that is to the point. There is a fourth part which is at present being printed, and which I hope will be published soon, God willing, possibly only a couple of weeks after this book has reached your hands! With the help of your prayers, I shall continue to publish what answers I can to those questions which I consider to be most common and most important. May all be well for you and may the Lord be with you.
February 1990
Pope Shenouda III