A Decade Ago...The Cardinal Who Would be Pope.

This is really fascinating and well worth watching. A decade ago, and just two years before he became Pope, EWTN's Raymond Arroyo interviewed the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who had been Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith for 22 years. The CDF, previously known as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition (wherefrom arose the names Roman Inquisition or Holy Inquisition popularly used in reference to the 16th century tribunals against witchcraft and heresy), and after 1904 called the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, is the oldest of the nine congregations of the Roman Curia. Among the most active of the congregations, it oversees Catholic Church doctrine. Its offices are housed at the Palace of the Holy Office at the Vatican.

What we see here is Joseph Ratzinger before he became Pope, speaking about liturgy, about his vision for the future, about the sex abuse scandal, about the Papacy of John Paul II, and about his desire to retire even then. I think watching this interview gives us a different perspective on where we are now!


I love the bit at 34:40 where Raymond asks him a quite complicated question about human sexuality and he responds with a smile "You cannot think zat I in one minute can clarify what so many people in great books could not clarify". The warmth and intelligence of the man! Oh how we will miss you Papa!

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