John Allen skriver svært interessant om at pave Benedikt har feriert i Bressanone helt siden 1968, mange ganger sammen med sin bror Georg, og sin (nå avdøde) søster Maria.
Allen skriver litt om disse mange besøkene i Bressanone, men går så over til å fortelle at det svært revolusjonerende intervjuet, med journalist Vittorio Messori, som ble utgitt i bokform med den engelske tittelen ‘The Ratzinger Report’, ble foretatt her i 1984 (og boka kom ut året etterpå). Jeg leste den interessante boka for snart 10 år siden, men visste ikke at den var så viktig som John Allen skriver:
Some 23 years later, it can be difficult to recall the earthquake the book triggered. Ratzinger bluntly described a «crisis» in Catholicism after the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), the antidote to which was rejecting an «unrestrained and unfiltered opening to the world» and emphasizing the continuity of Vatican II with earlier eras of tradition. The Ratzinger Report was an immediate best-seller, with more than a half-million copies gobbled up in the United States alone. It polarized opinion dramatically; as Messori recalled, it seemed everyone felt the need to take a stand for or against the cardinal’s vision.
Looking back, it’s striking how many vintage Ratzinger stereotypes either originated in widely quoted passages from the book, or were crystallized by them:
1. Ratzinger the pessimist
2. Ratzinger the restorationis
3. Ratzinger’s change of heart about Vatican II
4. Ratzinger’s obsession with socialism
5. Ratzinger’s hostility to bishops’ conferences
6. Ratzinger the Grand Inquisitor
7. Ratzinger the autocrat
8. Ratzinger the anti-feminist