In a written interview with the German “Herder Korrespondenz” (Herder Korrespondenz), the retired Pope Benedict XVI said that he opposes the reduction of faith as an ideology. Develop and grow in the contact with each other.
(Vatican News Network)Andrea Tornielli, the editorial director of the Ministry of Communication of the Holy See, recently published an article introducing Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s written answer to the German Herder Korrespondenz interview. “To me, the idea of’escaping to pure doctrine’ seems completely unrealistic”, this is what the pope emeritus said in a written interview with the German “Herder Monthly”.
The Pope Emeritus emphasized, “The most important thing is that believers ask questions and must constantly explore the reality of faith behind the hard reality of daily life. In this regard, I believe that the idea of’escaping to pure doctrine’ is absolutely impossible to achieve. The pure doctrine is like a nature reserve, it is separated from the daily world of faith and the various needs of faith. The true doctrine must start from faith and develop in faith, not outside.”
The thoughts of the Pope Emeritus show the face of a church that speaks in the heart, because a church that speaks only with its formal dogma or the functionalism of its church organization results in driving people away rather than attracting people.
As early as 2001, Card Ratzinger, who was then Minister of the Doctrine of the Holy See, was interviewed by the German journalist Peter Seewald. In the book “God and the World” that described that interview, Cardinal Ratzinger said: “The essence of faith does not start at a certain moment. I can say: I have faith, and others do not… Faith is always During the journey. Faith runs through our lives. Therefore, faith is often threatened and in danger. If faith can stay away from risks and avoid transforming into a manipulable ideology, it is also a good thing. A person can only be At every stage of life, he endured and bears the pain and violence of unbelief, and finally surpassed it. His faith will not be able to mature until he becomes alive again in a new period of life.”
Pope Benedict XVI talked to reporters on the way to Prague on September 26, 2009, emphasizing his “Gentile courtyard” idea, stating that non-believers and believers need each other. “Catholics can’t just be satisfied with having faith, but they need to constantly search for God, and more importantly, they must re-understand and understand God in a more in-depth way in dialogue with others.”
Believers are not people who already know everything, but they should ask questions in front of the reality of daily life. Faith is not a once and for all wealth, but a journey and continuous development. Belief is by no means an escape to a doctrine like a nature reserve, separate from the world. Believers need the inquiry and questioning of non-believers, so as not to reduce their beliefs to an ideology. This is a subject that the theologian who was the cardinal and later Pope Benedict XVI discussed many times. We have seen this point of inheritance many times in the teachings of his successor Pope Francis. For example, Pope Francis talked with priests and congregational men and women in the Duomo of Milan on March 25, 2017. , Invite them to get rid of the fetters of success when preaching the gospel, don’t be sad about the challenges in church life today, and remind them to guard against the danger of turning their faith into an ideology.
Pope Francis said: “It’s good to have challenges, because challenges make us grow. Challenges are a mark of a lively faith, a mark of a lively community that seeks the Lord and keeps its eyes and hearts open.” “We should worry more about a belief that is not challenged, a belief that is considered complete and everything is perfect: I don’t need everything else, everything is fine… Everything that has been said has been realized.”
At that same opportunity, Pope Francis also said: “The challenge helps us to ensure that our faith does not become ideological. Ideology is always dangerous. When a person is convinced that he has a complete faith. , Various ideologies will sprout and grow up, and then he himself will become an ideology. All challenges rescue us from closed and established thoughts, and prompt us to have a broader view of revealed facts understand.”
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