Pope Benedict XVI Blog

Promotion of eucharist and collegiality also high priorities for Pope

Father Fessio says Pope Benedict XVI will preserve integrity of faith

By Agostino Bono
Catholic News Service
April 28, 2005

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI will disappoint only those Catholics who want changes that disrupt the integrity of the Catholic faith, said a U.S. priest who has spent decades making available in English the writings of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before the 78-year-old German was elected to the papacy April 19.

Calling the new pope a theological hard-liner is "absolutely false," said Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio, founder and editor in chief of Ignatius Press, which has published 25 books in English by Cardinal Ratzinger.

"He has a tremendous breadth of vision that is recognized by his critics," said Father Fessio, provost of Ave Maria University in Naples, Fla., and a former student of the new pope.

"But he's a Catholic. He believes in Catholic truth. He wants to preserve the integrity of the deposit of faith," he added.

"Will he allow women priests? No, because he can't," Father Fessio said.

He met the future pope in the early 1970s when then-Father Ratzinger was Father Fessio's adviser for his doctoral thesis in theology at the University of Regensburg, Germany.

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posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 8:03 AM