Pope Francis: Booklet joins list of Irish best-sellers

The work by Pope Francis has sold more than any other such text since the Vatican II documents

A text written by Pope Francis has joined the list of best-selling non-fiction works on the island of Ireland.

Evangelii Gaudium: The Joy of the Gospel, is now in its fifth reprint and has, so far, sold 11,000 copies.

The booklet does not contain new doctrine, but suggests how church teachings and practices can be best applied to the present.

Since its release in November, it has outsold all such texts since the Second Vatican Council documents on ecumenism.

A spokesman for booksellers Waterstones said: "Pope Francis's book, Evangelii Gaudium, may not yet be rivalling Alex Ferguson's autobiography for the best-selling work on non-fiction, but 11,000 sales in the market since publication late last year are not to be sniffed at.

"Many, many books sell only a fraction of that number, so the Holy Father should be very proud of what his book has achieved so far."