Joseph Ratzinger
Joseph Ratzinger used Historical Critical principles in order to reverse the comdemnation of the propositions of Antonio Rosmini-Serbati. "In a recent document, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has decided to apply the historical-critical method, commonly used in the interpretation of scripture, to the understanding of the church's magisterium. This nota of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith of July 1, 2001, signed by the cardinal, is the first ecclesiastical document to adopt this approach. The nota first lifts the condemnation of 40 propositions drawn from the philosophical work of Antonio Rosmini pronounced in 1887 and then explains how the magisterium can do this without involving itself in an internal contradiction." (Link) In light of this can we expect a reversal of the condemnations of Arius, Luther and Cornelius Jansen? Could Historical-Critical thinking reverse all of Catholic doctrine?
On 26 June 2006, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI signed a Decree of the heroic virtues, and hence declared Rosmini to be Venerable.[1] On 3 June 2007, Pope Benedict XVI authorized the promulgation of a decree approving Rosmini's beatification.[2] On November 18, 2007, he was beatified in Novara, Italy.
"More recently, Pope Benedict XVI, a biblical scholar himself, has cautioned that the historical-critical method has its limits even though it is a vital tool in biblical studies. He maintains the Bible should be viewed in whole as the word of God in which all parts relate to each other. He has said the Bible offers every reader the possibility of a spiritual journey rather than being strictly a "textbook" on divine matters." (Link)
Joseph Ratzinger before he became Antipope Benedict XVI: Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith, 2002, p. 273: "... Islam, too, ... has inherited from Israel and the Christians the same God ..."
"On the other hand, this unity does not mean what could be called ecumenism of the return: that is, to deny and to reject one's own Faith history. Absolutely not!" – Antipope Benedict XVI, Address to Ecumenical meeting, Cologne, August 19, 2005
"If it is desirable to offer a diagnosis of the text [of the Vatican II document, Gaudium et Spes] as a whole, we might say that (in conjunction with the texts on religious liberty and world religions) it is a revision of the Syllabus of Pius IX, a kind of counter syllabus… As a result, the one-sidedness of the position adopted by the Church under Pius IX and Pius X in response to the situation created by the new phase of history inaugurated by the French Revolution, was, to a large extent, corrected..." - Antipope Benedict XVI, <i>Principles of Catholic Theology</i>, 1982, p. 381.
"I am convinced that the crisis of the church which we are living through today was largely caused by the disintegration of the liturgy" - Antipope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger)
Benedict XVI, Speech, Nov. 28, 2006: “… I am certain that religious liberty is a fundamental expression of human liberty and that the active presence of religions in society is a source of progress and enrichment for all.”
"As the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council emphasized, the Church seeks to cooperate with believers and leaders of all religions, and especially with Muslims, in order that together they may “preserve and promote peace, liberty, social justice and moral values” (Nostra Aetate, 3)."
"(We) are in agreement that a Jew, and this is true for believers of other religionsdoes not need to know or acknowledge Christ as the Son of God in order to be saved…" - Antipope Benedict XVI, Zenit News story, Sept. 5, 2000.
"It is of course possible to read the Old Testament so that it is not directed toward Christ; it does not point quite unequivocally to Christ. And if Jews cannot see the promises as being fulfilled in him, this is not just ill will on their part, but genuinely because of the obscurity of the texts… There are perfectly good reasons, then, for denying that the Old Testament refers to Christ and for saying, No, that is not what he said. And there are also good reasons for referring it to him – that is what the dispute between Jews and Christians is about" - Antipope Benedict XVI, God and the World, 2000, p. 209.
Benedict XVI, God and the World, 2000, pages 150-151: "...their [the Jews] 'No' to Christ brings the Israelites into conflict with the subsequent acts of God, but at the same time we know that they are assured of the faithfulness of God. They are not excluded from salvation…" - Antipope Benedict XVI, <i>God and the World</i>, 2000, pp. 150-151.
"Jewish messianic expectation is not in vain..." - Pontifical Biblical Commission, <i>The Jewish People and their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible</i>, 2001, S. II, A, 5 (Foreworded by Antipope Ratzinger)
"...Meantime the Catholic Church has no right to absorb other Churches.... A basic unity — of Churches that remain Churches, yet become one Church — must replace the idea of conversion...." - Antipope Benedict XVI, <i>Theological Highlights of Vatican II</i>, 1966, pages 61, 68:
"And we now ask: What does it mean to restore the unity of all Christians?... this unity does not mean what could be called ecumenism of the return: that is, to deny and to reject one's own faith history. Absolutely not!" - Antipope Benedict XVI, <i>Address to Protestants at World Youth Day</i>, August 19, 2005.
"It is our fervent hope that the Anglican Communion will remain grounded in the Gospels and the Apostolic Tradition which form our common patrimony… The world needs our witness… May the Lord continue to bless you and your family, and may he strengthen you in your ministry to the Anglican Communion!" - Antipope Benedict XVI, <i>Address to Anglican 'Archbishop of Canterbury'</i>, Nov. 23, 2006.
"Even a theology along the lines of the concept of (apostolic) succession, as is in force in the Catholic and in the Orthodox Church, should in no way deny the saving presence of the Lord in the Evangelical Lord's Supper" - Antipope Benedict XVI, <i>Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith</i>, 2002, p. 248.
"… the burdensome question of (apostolic) succession does not detract from the spiritual dignity of Evangelical Christianity, or from the saving power of the Lord at work within it..." - Antipope Benedict XVI, <i>Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith</i>, 2002, p. 251.
"…we are witnesses today of a new integralism that may seem to support what is strictly Catholic but in reality corrupts it to the core. It produces a passion of suspicions, the animosity of which is far from the spirit of the gospel. There is an obsession with the letter that regards the liturgy of the Church as invalid and thus puts itself outside the Church. It is forgotten here that the validity of the liturgy depends primarily, not on specific words, but on the community of the Church..." - Antipope Benedict XVI, <i>Principles of Catholic Theology</i>, 1982, p. 377.
"The conflict over infant baptism shows the extent to which we have lost sight of the true nature of faith, baptism and membership in the Church… It is obvious also that the meaning of baptism is destroyed wherever it is no longer understood as an anticipatory gift but only as a selfcontained rite. Wherever it is severed from the catechumenate, baptism loses its reason to be" - Antipope Benedict XVI, <i>Principles of Catholic Theology</i>, 1982, p. 43.
"Q. ...what happens to the millions of children who are killed in their mothers' wombs? A. …the question about children who could not be baptized because they were aborted then presses upon us that much more urgently. Earlier ages had devised a teaching that seems to me rather unenlightened. They said that baptism endows us, by means of sanctifying grace, with the capacity to gaze upon God. Now, certainly, the state of original sin, from which we are freed by baptism, consists in a lack of sanctifying grace. Children who die in this way are indeed without any personal sin, so they cannot be sent to Hell, but, on the other hand, they lack sanctifying grace and thus the potential for beholding God that this bestows. They will simply enjoy a state of natural blessedness, in which they will be happy. This state people called limbo. In the course of our century, that has gradually come to seem problematic to us. This was one way in which people sought to justify the necessity of baptizing infants as early as possible, but the solution is itself questionable." - Antipope Benedict XVI, <i>God and the World</i>, 2000, p. 401.
"The pagan creation accounts on which the biblical story is in part based end without exception in the establishment of a cult, but the cult in this case is situated in the cycle of the do ut des" - Antipope Benedict XVI, <i>A New Song for the Lord</i>, 1995, p. 86.
"Q. …Were these laws really handed over to Moses by God when he appeared on Mount Sinai? As stone tablets, on which, as it says, 'the finger of God had written?'… to what extent are these Commandments really supposed to come from God? A. [p. 166] …This [Moses] is the man who has been touched by God, and on the basis of this friendly contact he is able to formulate the will of God, of which hitherto only fragments had been expressed in other traditions, in such a manner that we truly hear the word of God. Whether there really were any stone tablets is another question… [p. 168] How far we should take this story literally is another question" - Antipope Benedict XVI, <i>God and the World</i>, 2000, pp. 165-166, 168.
"My visit to Turkey afforded me the opportunity to show also publicly my respect for the Islamic Religion, a respect, moreover, which the Second Vatican Council (declaration Nostra Aetate #3) pointed out to us as an attitude that is only right" - Antipope Benedict XVI, Address, Dec. 22, 2006.
"And, to prescind from the schism between Sunnites and Shiites, it [Islam] also exists in many varieties. There is a noble Islam, embodied, for example, by the King of Morocco, and there is also the extremist, terrorist Islam, which, again, one must not identify with Islam as a whole, which would do it an injustice" - Antipope Benedict XVI, <i>Salt of the Earth</i>, 1996, p. 244.
"In Hinduism (which is actually a collective name for a whole multitude of religions) there are some marvelous elements – but there are also negative aspects: involvement with the caste system; suttee for widows, which developed from beginnings that were merely symbolic; offshoots of the cult of the goddess Sakti – all these might be mentioned to give just a little idea. Yet even Islam, with all the greatness it represents, is always in danger of losing balance, letting violence have a place and letting religion slide away into mere outward observance and ritualism" - Antipope Benedict XVI, <i>Truth and Tolerance</i>, 2004, p. 204.
"The believer – and all of us, as Christians and Muslims, are believers... You guide Muslim believers and train them in the Islamic faith... You, therefore, have a great responsibility for the formation of the younger generation" - Antipope Benedict XVI, <i>Address to Representatives of Islam</i>, August 20, 2005.
"This year is also the 40th anniversary of the conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate, which has ushered in a new season of dialogue and spiritual solidarity between Jews and Christians, as well as esteem for the other great religious traditions. Islam occupies a special place among them" - Antipope Benedict XVI, <i>Catechesis</i>, August 24, 2005.
"There were in fact Christian hotheads and fanatics who destroyed (pagan) temples, who were unable to see paganism as anything more than idolatry that had to be radically eliminated" - Antipope Benedict XVI, <i>God and the World</i>, 2000, p. 373.
"Regarding the future, it seems likely that, in global terms, the influence of the Church over the world will constantly diminish. The numeric triumph of Catholicism over other religions, which today can still be admitted, probably will not continue.... In this state of things, one should no longer be concerned with the salvation of 'the others,' who for some time now have become 'our brothers.' Above all, the central question is to have an intuition of the Church's position and mission in History under a positive new point-of-view. This new point-of-view should allow one to believe in the universal offer of the grace of salvation as well as the essential part that the Church plays in this. Therefore, in this sense the problem changed. What concerns us is no longer how 'the others' will be saved. Certainly we know, by our faith in divine mercy, that they can be saved. How this happens, we leave to God. The point that does concern us is principally this: Why, despite the wider possibility of salvation, is the Church still necessary? Why should faith and life still continue to come through her? In other words, the present day Christians no longer question if their non-believer brothers can reach salvation. Overall, they desire to know what is the meaning of their union with the universal embrace of Christ and their union with the Church" - Antipope Benedict XVI as Joseph Ratzinger, Necessita della missione della Chiesa nel mondo (Necessity of the Mission of the Church in the World), in La Fine della Chiesa come Societa Perfetta, Mondatori, 1968, Verona, pp 69-70.
