This is a homily given by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger a month prior to his election as Pope Benedict XVI (March 18, 2005) at St. Peter's Basilica. It address the meaning and importance of Gaudium et Spes, Vatican II's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the...
“It must be stated that Vatican II is upheld by the same authority as Vatican I and the Council of Trent, namely, the Pope and the College of Bishops in communion with him, and that also with regard to its contents, Vatican II is in...
The Marian devotion of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, is beautifully manifest in his previously articulated "six reasons for not forgetting" Mary. In a 1984 interview with Vittorio Messori, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, identified Our...
In 1969, then Fr. Josef Ratzinger, theologian and peritus (theological advisor to the bishops) at the Second Vatican Council, predicted that the Church of the future would be much smaller than it was in the sixties, at least in the western, developed world. But, the...
The first thing that the Pope wants to establish is the focus and framework of his teaching and his entire Pontificate. It is all about love. But the Pope wants to distinguish the romantic or erotic love of “eros” from the divine love called “agape”...
Benedict XVI has published his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, God is love. Why did he write it? Why did he choose this theme? What was his intention? The Holy Father responds to these questions, addressed to him by Zenit.org, in the following words which...
Cardinal Josef Ratzinger's reflection on Ad Tuendam Fidem, Doctrinal Commentary on the Concluding Formula of the Professio fidei, is intended to provide examples of the various levels of authority of the teaching of the Magisterium and explain the proper response owed to them....
Benedict XVI's homily for the Chrism Mass of Holy Thursday 2009. The annual occasion on which the bishop, who is the only one who do so, blesses sacred chrism and other holy oils to be used throughout the diocese in the coming year. ...
BENEDICT XVI TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY, CONSECRATED PERSONS AND THE LAY FAITHFUL ON THE EUCHARIST AS THE SOURCE AND SUMMIT OF THE CHURCH'S LIFE AND MISSION INDEX Introduction [1] The food of truth [2] The development of the eucharistic rite [3] The Synod of Bishops and the Year of the Eucharist [4] The purpose of the present...
[dropcaps type='normal' font_size='100' color='' background_color='' border_color='']O[/dropcaps] utstanding among the saints is Mary, Mother of the Lord and mirror of all holiness. In the Gospel of Luke we find her engaged in a service of charity to her cousin Elizabeth, with whom she remained for "about...