Pope emeritus Benedict XVI breaks the silence, harsh criticism

Il Pontiff emeritus breaks the silence and responding in writing to the German magazine Herder Korrespondenz spares no criticism of the German church.

A church, he notes Benedict XVI, who must speak "with the heart and the spirit" and who must "demondanize", because "as long as the official texts of the Church speak the functions, but not the heart and the Spirit, the world will continue to distance itself from the faith".

In the background, the synodal journey of the Church in Germany. Joseph Ratzinger observes that "a true and personal witness of faith of the workers of the Church" is expected; criticizes the fact that "in ecclesial institutions - hospitals, schools, Caritas - many people are involved in decisive positions that do not support the mission of the Church and therefore often obscure the testimony of this institution".

In the text, the pope emeritus also defines an "escape into pure doctrine" as unrealistic. Rather, the doctrine must "develop in and from the faith, not alongside it". Because a "doctrine that should exist as a natural reserve, separated from the daily world of faith and its needs would be at the same time a renunciation of the faith itself".

In the interview, Ratzinger emphasized that “the Church is made of wheat and chaff, good fish and bad fish. So it is not a question of separating the good from the bad, but of separating the faithful from the infidels ”.