Pope Benedict XVI Blog

Even in 2002, future Pope Benedict XVI Saw Relativism as a Main Challenge for Church

Date: 2005-04-22

What Cardinal Ratzinger Was Thinking in 2002

Gave Interview With Journalists in Spain

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 22, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The proclamation of Christ and his Gospel in a relativist world was for the future Pope Benedict XVI one of the main challenges of the Church.

This is how Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, explained it on Nov. 30, 2002, in this interview with journalists, among whom were several of ZENIT's writers.

The interview took place at St. Anthony's Catholic University of Murcia, Spain, where the cardinal was attending an International Congress on Christology.

We offer this long interview which reflects some of the characteristic features of the new Pope, considered one of the most important contemporary theologians.

Q: Some interpret the fact of proclaiming Christ as a rupture in the dialogue with other religions. How can one proclaim Christ and dialogue at the same time?

Cardinal Ratzinger: I would say that today relativism predominates. It seems that whoever is not a relativist is someone who is intolerant.

To think that one can understand the essential truth is already seen as something intolerant. However, in reality this exclusion of truth is a type of very grave intolerance and reduces essential things of human life to subjectivism. In this way, in essential things we no longer have a common view. Each one can and should decide as he can. So we lose the ethical foundations of our common life.

Christ is totally different from all the founders of other religions, and he cannot be reduced to a Buddha, a Socrates or a Confucius. He is really the bridge between heaven and earth, the light of truth who has appeared to us.

The gift of knowing Jesus does not mean that there are no important fragments of truth in other religions. In the light of Christ, we can establish a fruitful dialogue with a point of reference in which we can see how all these fragments of truth contribute to greater depth in our faith and to an authentic spiritual community of humanity.

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posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 12:35 PM