New pope Benedict XVI — formerly 78-year-old German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — is more than just the new leader of the world’s 1 billion Catholics, he’s also a respected thinker and the author of more than 30 books. Here, in The National Enquirer, the new pontiff writes about his journey from Nazi Germany to the Vatican and reveals some of his innermost thoughts…
On His Early Years
I grew up in a family which really practiced its faith. The faith of my parents, of our Church, confirmed for me that Catholicism was a citadel of truth and righteousness against the realm of atheism and deceit which Nazism represented.
The collapse of the regime proved to me that the Church’s premonitions were right. All the same it would be very rash to regard it as a product of Catholicism… the faithful core of the Lutheran Church [also] played an outstanding part in resisting Hitler.
On Responsibility
I have loved my work as a teacher and researcher. I certainly never aspired to head the administration of the Munich archdiocese and subsequently that of the Congregation Doctrine of the Faith. It is a difficult task. Yet, in as much as I follow the reports which land on my desk every day, it has allowed me to grasp what concern for the universal Church means.
On Evil
Whatever the less discerning theologian may say, the devil, as far as Christian belief is concerned, is puzzling but real, personal, and not merely a symbolical presence.
He is a powerful reality (‘the prince of this world,’ as he is called by the New Testament, which continually reminds us of his existence), a baneful superhuman freedom directed against God’s freedom. This is evident if we look realistically at history, with its abyss of evernew atrocities which cannot be explained by reference to man alone. Man has not the power to oppose Satan, but the devil is not a second God, and united with Jesus we can be certain of vanquishing him.
On Women
Motherhood and virginity have become values that are in opposition to the dominant ones [in today’s society].
Woman is being convinced that the aim is to ‘liberate’ her, ’emancipate’ her, by encouraging her to masculinize herself, thus bringing her into conformity with the culture of production and subjecting her to the control of the masculine society of technicians, of salesmen, of politicians who seek profit and power, organizing everything, marketing everything and instrumentalizing everything for their own ends.
