Peter Hoskin

From the archives: Ratzinger’s vision

A propos of nothing – except perhaps the religious time of year – here’s The Spectator‘s report on one Cardinal Ratzinger setting out his “cautious and conservative” vision for Catholicism at the Extraordinary Synod of 1985:

Ratzinger’s synod, The Spectator, Vera Buchanan, 7 December 1985


Rome – Well, the Extraordinary Synod is nearly over – it has been a well planned, well executed flop. Thus it was conceived and thus it has borne fruit – bland, musty fruit. In Rome no one expected anything else. While foreign presses tried to titillate the public with dramatic tales of clocks being turned back, rivers of modernism dammed, the spirit of Vatican II laID, here in the cynical Eternal City we knew better. We knew that this synod was Cardinal Ratzinger’s synod and therefore despite the disappointed posturing of theologians and the weak bleating of local hierarchies it would conform to Cardinal Ratzinger’s vision. And Ratzinger’s vision, cautious and conservative though it is, contains no break with tradition, no change of direction. He has merely sought to put Vatican II in its proper context, along with Nicaea, Trent and Vatican I, as part of the continuous development of the Church. 
 


So the synod was called, and the synod sat, and the Pope listened, silently and courteously. It could all have been done by post. The Irish cardinal with an unpronounceable name made an improbable plea for ecumenism and the Austrian cardinal with a pronounceable name made an endearing plea for the divorced. Meanwhile those that wanted to know what was going on sat down and read Rapporto sulla Fede, the paperback of 212 pages which consists of a long interview with Ratzinger by the journalist Vittorio Messori (published in English as The Ratzinger Report, Fowler Wright).

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