Insightful and interesting, but not the best in the Ratzinger interview series.

books:

	• Ratzinger Report: An Exclusive Interview on the State of the Church Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Vittorio Messori Ignatius Press, 1985 - 197 pages average customer review:based on 17 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Better Late Than Never

Better Late Than Never to read this book. As the subtitle explains, "an exclusive interview", Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger with Victoria Missouri. This text has been on my list of books to read for a long time, the fact that Cardinal Ratzinger.is now Pope Benedict XVI certainly does not diminish any of the subjects discussed in the book The interviewer appears to be a very knowledgeable Italian journalist. The book was very rewarding mainly because of the reasons given for the Church's actions or non-actions, such as the constant voicing for woman priests. This book gives the reasons why the Church has not gone down this route. The first half of the book may be a little dull but the second half involves discussions that most American Catholics feel are relevant. The book discusses Ecumenicalism, the Church's stand on Liberation Theology and what has brought on the feeling that many Catholics feel their religion is out of sync with their society. This and many more subjects are discussed.
Once read, I know this book will be kept around as a reference.

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Insightful and interesting, but not the best in the Ratzinger interview series.

I have greatly enjoyed those volumes of Ratzinger's interviews that have been translated into English and published by Ignatius Press; "God and the World," "Salt of the Earth," and "The Ratzinger Report." However, I believe that with respect to the other two books, "The Ratzinger Report" falls short.

Is this an insightful book? Yes. Does this shed light on the thought of Joseph Ratzinger in the mid-80s? Yes. Is this as good as the other, later interviews? I'd argue No.

There are several factors that play a role in my opinion. The first is that this is an interview composed by a different reporter than the other two. The Second is the format in which it is written (prose vs. Q&A). The Third is the depth and length of the book. This is a much shorter volume with questions that do not delve as deep into the mind of Ratzinger as the other books.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wishes to be a formal or informal scholar of the theological and social thought of Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI). However, if you have read the other two interview books, be prepared for a significant difference.

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Candid and Cool

Several years after its publication, this remains the best single introduction to the man now pope. It also would be something of a classic even had Cardinal Ratzinger not become pope. The 2 book-length interviews which followed, by Peter Seewald, are also interesting, but Messori's edges them out for its conciseness and organization, plus the fact Messori is an informed Catholic who does not have to wade through doctrinal positions unfamiliar to him.

Certainly this is sort of an elevated dialogue -- Ratzinger is, primarily, an intellectual and theologian. Every book under his name, even the few devotional ones, are in that vein and it comes with the territory. That said, he speaks as plainly and directly as he can, and -- for an upper level churchman -- is remarkably candid and does not dodge controversy. This quality, plus the fact that Ratzinger was a major player in Vatican 2 -- is what gives the book historical value with or without his recent election.

The topics covered are very wide ranging -- though most concern the state of the Catholic church, not Christian or Catholic theology in general. Overall, it might be called a report card on Vatican 2, with mixed grades. Here, Ratzinger clearly stated his continuing thesis that the council has not yet been implented properly or in its wholeness. All positions are stated rather openly and without rancor but cooly. The startling things he states thus give the reader a sort of double-take. For instance, he is convinced that civilization at present is in a grave and unprecedented crisis on many fronts, and the future hardly certain. He thus does not really echo John Paul II's motto, "Be not afraid" in every conceivable sense. In the sense of the ultimate goodness of God and the triumph of redemption afforded by Christ, sure. But on a temporal level, Ratzinger's view is that nations and peoples, at any historical moment, possess and exercise will to accept or reject those gifts. Doubtless this is a view seared into his being from having been brought up under the Nazis. And he sees disturbing general parallels to that disaster in what the entire European civilization is doing at present. His spooky discussion concerning the Fatima message only underscores this viewpoint. For afficionados of that event, his 1 and 1/2 pageworth of dry discussion of the 3rd secret prophesy, in this book, constitutes the only cogent, authoritative official description of that subject (as compared to the vision released some years later, with JP 2's interpretation attatched, and which Ratzinger's "official" and generalistic commentary --likewise very dry -- noted was not a matter of faith).

Ratzinger is no romantic. His sometimes terse observations, so casual and so comfortably delivered, can be quite numbing in their realism and impact. What is done in history is done; to the extent the council failed, for instance, it needs be remedied, but there is no going back. Thus while generally conservative in viewpoint he is no believer in "restorations" or "returns" to a prior situation. Indeed he sees the council as part and parcel of a general historical crisis in the west; deviations and mis-interpretations are not merely an intra-Catholic issue. Indeed the nature and causes of this historical crisis in western civilization is the main personal ingrediant he brings to the table.

All in all, this is a book that once read, a thoughtful reader will return to on several occasions. His papal name only doubly underscores the point of view which emerges throughout these friendly chats -- connecting the two dots (Saint Benedict, the cornerstone of western Christian civilization in his Catholic view, and Benedict XV, pope at the time of the start of its endgame) which are the most passionate focus of this otherwise -- to all outward appearances -- most urbane academician.

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Right on target; a great diagnosis of the problems

In 1985 I was a fairly recent returnee to the Church after several years of disinterest and non-attendance. The Church in America was obviously in trouble-even I could tell that. Odd priests with strange behaviors and weird homilies. Theologians writing articles and books viciously hostile to "Rome"-they always seemed to refer to the Pope as "Rome". I eagerly looked forward to the publication of this book, and devoured it when it appeared. Alas, my pastor, an apparently grown-up man and a theologian himself, angrily, red-faced, denounced the book from the pulpit and insisted that "Rome" had no right to interfere with the teachings of the American Church. "Rome" had no knowledge of conditions and circumstances here in America and should just butt out. That's not an exact quote-it was 20 years ago, after all-but his words were very much to that effect.

Over the years I've heard that same sort of thing many, many times. It has presented me (and everyone else) with a choice. Do I follow the increasingly popular "American" way or do I follow the Pope? My choice is the latter.

This book, 20 years old as it is, puts the matter very plainly. The issues haven't changed. The dissenters in Europe and America have simply grown more subtle and evasive. I highly recommend this book if you want a thorough grounding in what the tension between "Rome" and the dissenters is all about.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

The Ratzinger Report is a book-long interview with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger that his friend and former student, Father Joseph Fessio, S.J., says could be called the "Magna Carta" of the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI. *** Here is the comlete text of a meeting many have called a "historical turnabout" in the Church. The roots of the crisis that hase troubled Catholics in the twenty years since the Council are analyzed with forthright clarity by one of the most authoritative voices in the Vatican. Here is a clear and uncompromising report on the dangers that threaten the Faith, fom one who every day receives the most reliable information from every continent. Yet Ratzinger's observations are as hopeful and balanced as they are clear-sighted, forcefully re-affirming the immense and positive work of Vatican II, whose genuine fruits this book provides a guideline for achieving.

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