Cardinal Ratzinger

 Defender of the Faith

See also Statement: No Salvation Outside the Church

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From NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER, quoted in THE WANDERER, 11/3/94, Advertising Supplement.

"Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, powerful overseer of church doctrine as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, [Editor - this Congregation was formerly known as the Inquisition] says he would like to see church altars in Catholic churches turned around again.

"After years in which priests celebrated Mass with their backs turned to worshipers, altars were repositioned after the Second Vatican Council (1963-65) so that the priest could face the people...

"'I would say that, in a certain way, the priest has become too important,' [Ratzinger] said. 'Those attending Mass must always be looking at him. In reality, he is not nearly that important.

"Ratzinger said this exaggerated importance given the role of the priest has played a part in the feminist conviction of the need for women to become priests."

From THE WANDERER, 5/8/97. "The unprecedented manner in which Pope Paul VI imposed the Novus Ordo of the Mass created tragic consequences for the Roman Catholic Church, says Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger . . . in his new autobiography.

"Not only did the banning of the Old Mass represent a severe departure from tradition, but the revolutionary manner in which the new Mass was imposed has created the impression that liturgy is something each community creates on its own, not something which is given.

". . . the New Mass has become a source of liturgical anarchy, dividing Catholics into opposing party positions and creating a situation in which the Church is lacerating herself.

"`I was dismayed by the banning of the Old Missal,' he wrote,`seeing that a similar thing had never happened in the entire history of the liturgy.

"`I am convinced that the ecclesiastical crisis in which we find ourselves today depends in a great part upon the collapse of the liturgy.'"

From Catholic News Service, 6/5/97. Archbishop Rembert Weakland disputed Cardinal Ratzinger's contention that "extremely serious damage" was done to the Church in the adoption of the New Mass.

The real damage, according to Weakland, was caused by John Paul's decision to permit use of the Tridentine (Latin Mass) rite in 1984. He said those actions "totally derailed the liturgical renewal" and contributed to a "devastating" division and disunity within the church.

From The Record, Louisville, KY 1/21/99 page 9

NEWSMAKER PROFILE: CARDINAL RATZINGER

Vatican prelate's influence far reaching

Doctrinal congregation head seen as last check on policy, second in influence only to pope

By JOHN THAVIS Catholic News Service.

He has censured wayward theologians and banned their books. He has sharply defined the limits of dissent and the boundaries of ecumenical dialogue.

He has rewritten liturgical texts, pulled the reins on bishops' conferences and warned of "abuses" in lay ministries. He has turned the Vatican's spotlight on evangelization problems in Asia, Oceania and elsewhere.

German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is not pope, but many people at the Vatican think his influence these days is second only to that of Pope John Paul II - and a close second. His Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (originally called the Inquisition) has issued a stream of documents, guidelines and commentaries on some of the most sensitive issues in church life.

A few years ago, Cardinal Ratzinger spoke of retiring after 15 years at the helm of the doctrinal congregation. But today, the man who is sometimes called the "Panzer Kardinal" - after the German tank - is running in high gear.

"He's become the last check on everything, the final word on orthodoxy. Everything is passed through his congregation," said one Vatican official, who asked not to be named.

When Australian church leaders were summoned to a "dialogue" with lead Vatican officials last November, they didn't know what was on the agenda. They did hear that it was Cardinal Ratzinger's idea.

Cardinal Ratzinger helped arrange a similar meeting with Indian bishops a couple of years ago, because he was worried that Christian evangelization on the subcontinent was being watered down or "relativized" - one of the most dangerous trends in the church, in his view.

U.S. bishops experienced the reach of the Cardinal Ratzinger's doctrinal congregation during a review of English liturgical prayer translations, normally a question handled by Vatican worship officials. But citing "doctrinal" issues in translations, Cardinal Ratzinger took charge of the discussion, set ad hoc guidelines and made major changes to a proposed lectionary.

The cardinal's influence was evident in a wide range of documents issued over the past year. In June, for example, when the pope published an apostolic letter invoking canonical penalties for certain forms of dissent, it was twinned with a six-page commentary from Cardinal Ratzinger that warned Catholics they would put themselves outside the communion of the church if they rejected its teachings on eight specific issues.

The next month Cardinal Ratzinger was back again, unveiling a papal document on the limited authority of bishops' conferences. The Congregation for Bishops had worked inconclusively on the document for several years, trying to put together a text that had significant support from the world's bishops. But the pope handed the project over to Cardinal Ratzinger, who brought it into port.

In ecumenism, Cardinal Ratzinger's doctrinal evaluations can arrive like arctic cold fronts. Last October, with no forewarning to Vatican ecumenists, he issued nine pages on papal primacy, one of the most sensitive questions on the ecumenical horizon, declaring that, in the end, only the Pope has the authority to make changes in his universal ministry. "It's a matter of faith," he said.

Vatican officials speak of a symmetry and a complementary relationship between Cardinal Ratzinger and Pope John Paul. The two meet nearly every week for private talks that touch upon congregation affairs and other topics.

Some have suggested that as the pope's health and stamina have waned in recent years, Cardinal Ratzinger may be dominating church policy the "power behind the throne," as one priest in Rome put it. But those on the inside deny that the pope has ceded any part of his papal ministry to his doctrinal guardian.

"The pope wouldn't let anything like that slip out of his control. And it would be very hard to say that Cardinal Ratzinger has an agenda that goes beyond the pope's," said one longtime Vatican official.

Recently, the cardinal has been giving speeches at Rome's universities on the pope's much-praised encyclical, "Faith and Reason," which Cardinal Ratzinger helped prepare for publication. The cardinal also has a book of memoirs out in English, "Milestones," which reveals, among other things, his deep disappointment at post-Vatican II liturgical changes.

At age 71, the white-hair cardinal has become even more visible in the universal church. Those who see him in action often remark on his gentle in manner, but beneath it is a steel-like sense of purpose. Occasionally it surfaces.

At a press conference to veil "Faith and Reason," for example, Cardinal Ratzinger allowed others on the podium to respond to several questions about biological ethics. Then he quietly observed that this discussion was really beside the point.

The effect was compelling, and other panelists quickly dropped the topic: Cardinal Ratzinger had spoken, and they knew he must be right.