Joseph Ratzinger: In Honor of His 90th Birthday

"The end or purpose of both reason and revelation is that we know the truth of things."

“Without timeless, binding faith propositions, there is nothing to judge the elements within the spiritual atmosphere, nothing to distinguish the Christian-friendly elements from the Christian-toxic elements.”

“Christianity guarantees politics and the state their proper autonomy while preventing their degeneration into monistic totalitarianism.”

“When religious freedom is taken to mean that no religious body possesses any politically relevant moral authority, then the Church is effectually subordinated to the state.”

“Rejection of transcendence implies that all human realities (the state, sexuality, work, the family) lose their symbolic or ideal significance and become ‘dumb.’”

“Beauty opens our heart only because at the same time it opens our eyes.”

“If God is only present in Jesus but is not this Jesus nor is Jesus God, then in Jesus, God has not entered into full communion with humankind.”

“[T]here is no boundary beyond which the authentic history of the faith ceases, after which we find nothing but straw.”

“We cannot give life to others without giving up our own lives.”

Professor Kenneth Schmitz, a member of the original board of the American Communio , and its president for several years, passed away on August 25, 2017 at the age of 94.