Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Pope Benedict XVI On Being Catholic
In the 1996 interview given to German journalist Peter Seewald asked the future Pope Benedict, the following question:
"What is the most fascinating thing about being Catholic for you personally?"
To which then Cardinal Ratzinger responded:
"The fascinating thing is this great living history into which we enter. Looked at in purely human terms, it is something extraordinary. That an institution with so many human weaknesses and failures is nonetheless preserved in its continuity and that I, living within this great communion, can know that I am in communion with all the living and the dead; and that I also find in it a certainty about the essence of my life--namely, God who has turned to me--on which I can found my life, with which I can live and die." (Salt of the Earth pgs. 20&21 Ignatius Press 1997)
"What is the most fascinating thing about being Catholic for you personally?"
To which then Cardinal Ratzinger responded:
"The fascinating thing is this great living history into which we enter. Looked at in purely human terms, it is something extraordinary. That an institution with so many human weaknesses and failures is nonetheless preserved in its continuity and that I, living within this great communion, can know that I am in communion with all the living and the dead; and that I also find in it a certainty about the essence of my life--namely, God who has turned to me--on which I can found my life, with which I can live and die." (Salt of the Earth pgs. 20&21 Ignatius Press 1997)
