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In his words

"We can be sure our beloved pope is standing today at the window of the father's house, that he sees us and blesses us. Today we bury his remains in the earth as a seed of immortality. Our hearts are full of sadness, yet at the same time (full) of joyful hope and profound gratitude."

- APRIL 8, from Ratzinger's homily during Pope John Paul II's funeral

"Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism. ... Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and "swept along by every wind of teaching,' looks like the only attitude acceptable to today's standards. We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires."

- APRIL 18, from a homily Ratzinger delivered at Mass hours before the beginning of the conclave that would elect him pope

"It is true that the Muslim world is not totally mistaken when it reproaches the West of Christian tradition of moral decadence and the manipulation of human life. ... Islam has also had moments of great splendor and decadence in the course of its history."

- MARCH 6, 2002, from "Ratzinger denies Christianity "superior' to Islam," Zenit.org via Catholic News

"That the Jews are connected with God in a special way and that God does not allow that bond to fail is entirely obvious. We wait for the instant in which Israel will say yes to Christ, but we know that it has a special mission in history now . . . which is significant for the world."

- OCTOBER 2000, from Ratzinger's book, God and the World.

"The fact that the church is convinced of not having the right to confer priestly ordination on women is now considered by some as irreconcilable with the European Constitution."

- APRIL 11, from Zenit.org

"In the church, priests also are sinners. But I am personally convinced that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the United States, is a planned campaign, as the percentage of these offenses among priests is not higher than in other categories, and perhaps it is even lower."

- DEC. 3, 2002, from "Cardinal Ratzinger Sees a Media Campaign Against Church," Zenit.org

"Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered to an intrinsic moral evil, and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder."

- 1986, from Ratzinger's "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons," as reported by National Catholic Reporter.

"It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the church's pastors wherever it occurs. . . . The intrinsic dignity of each person must always be respected in work, in action and in law."

- 1986, from Ratzinger's "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons."

[Last modified April 20, 2005, 02:56:36]