Criticisms about John Paul II

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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Criticisms about John Paul II
Oct 16, 2004
Over the years Ratzinger has even been willing to express a few criticisms, however tame, about his boss.

(The Tablet, 18 September 2004) In 1986, when John Paul II called religious leaders from around the world to Assisi to pray for peace, a move conservatives feared would promote a “one-religion-is-as-good-as-another” form of relativism, Ratzinger said: “This cannot be the model.”

In a 1995 interview, Ratzinger was asked to describe what John Paul meant when he said the third millennium would be a “springtime of the human spirit”. Ratzinger sketched the Pope’s hopeful vision that after two millennia of division, the third would be one of unity among peoples and religions. But “at the moment I do not yet see it approaching”, he added drily.

Every time Ratzinger makes such a statement, the official gloss is that he was merely expressing a “personal opinion”. John Paul II himself has sometimes agreed. In 1995, on the papal plane, when a reporter asked for a comment on Ratzinger’s book-length interview with Vittorio Messori called The Ratzinger Report, the Pope replied succinctly: “It’s his personal opinion.”

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