Card. Ratzinger Criticises the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK)

Benedictus XVI. P.P.

Function: Pope of the Holy Roman Church

Title: Servus Servorum Dei

Birthdate: Apr 16, 1927	Country: Germany

Elevated: Jun 27, 1977	More information: www.catholic-hierarchy.org, www.ratzingerfanclub.com/, www.benedictxvi.tv

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Card. Ratzinger Criticises the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK)
Sept 15, 2004
The ecumenical Kirchentag in Berlin at the end of May had lacked a “definite framework”.

(The Tablet, 2 August 2003) The ecumenical Kirchentag in Berlin at the end of May had lacked a “definite framework” and concentrated too much on “self-celebration and enjoyment”, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said in an interview with the German newspaper Rhein-Zeitung of Coblenz.

Ratzinger warned against applying political criteria to ecumenism, which he emphasised was a “divine matter”: how fast it progressed was “up to God”.

The cardinal went on to criticise lay Catholics in Germany. While the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) sometimes made useful comments on political and social matters, he said, he had never yet heard them “proclaim their faith joyfully” and had rarely encountered in them “a spirit of faith and inner unity with the bishops”. German Catholic youth organisations had become “over-bureaucratised” in recent years and were today an example of a Christianity that was purely “functional”.

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