The Ratzinger Report

Book cover
Author	Joseph Ratzinger
Original title	Rapporto Sulla Fede
Translator	Salvator Attanasio Graham Harrison
Language	English
Subject	Catholic Church
Publisher	Ignatius Press
Publication date	1985
Pages	197
ISBN	978-0-89870-080-0

The Ratzinger Report (Italian: Rapporto Sulla Fede) is a 1985 book consisting of a series of interviews collected over several days given by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger to the Italian journalist Vittorio Messori. The book focuses on the state of the Roman Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council. The book is very critical of the "hermeneutic of rupture" associated with the liberal "spirit of Vatican II" within the Church. It has often been reread in the context of the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI in order to better understand the mind and the thinking of the former pontiff.^[1][2]

Topics

• The true Spirit and letter of Vatican II
• The Church as God's Church, not the laity Church
• The nature of the priesthood
• The papacy, the episcopacy, and the role of bishops' conferences.
• Liberalism, relativism and the permissiveness of modern society
• The role of women
• Six reasons not to forget the Blessed Virgin Mary
• Spirituality for today
• The dignity of the liturgy, the eucharist as the heart of faith, and the difference between solemnity and triumphalism
• The devil, the angels, purgatory, and limbo
• Ecumenism and Christian unity
• Liberation theology, Marxism and capitalism
• Evangelization and why Jesus is the only Savior

Papal primacy, supremacy and infallibility
Overview Primacy of Peter & Papal primacy Papal supremacy Papal infallibility First Vatican Council § Papal infallibility
Patriarchs compared to popes Papal primacy Episcopal see § Catholic Church Apiarius of Sicca § Appeal to the bishop of Rome Pentarchy § After the East–West Schism Pope John XIX § Life Gregory II Youssef § First Vatican Council Ravenna Document Eastern Orthodox opposition to papal supremacy
Ecumenical councils compared to popes Conciliarity Conciliarism § Modern conciliarism Ecumenical council § Acceptance of the councils To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation § The Third Wall: Authority to Call a Council Ultrajectines
Catholic episcopal councils compared to popes Febronianism Christus Dominus § Controversy The Ratzinger Report
Political rulers compared to popes Gallicanism Patronato real Josephinism Febronianism Cisalpinism Appointment of Catholic bishops § Centralization of papal power Concordat § List Papal deposing power
Existing dogma compared to popes Development of doctrine Cum ex apostolatus officio Pascendi Dominici gregis
Objections and controversy Ecclesiastical differences between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church § Papal authority Ignaz von Döllinger § Papal authority Ultramontanism § Position of other apostolic churches Papal infallibility § Objections Old Catholic Church § First Vatican Council, Old Catholic Union of Utrecht Sedevacantism Josip Juraj Strossmayer § Catholic diplomacy Ultrajectine
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