Benedict on the Church

Claude Monet, La Cathédrale de Rouen, façade, soleil couchant (W1327), Musée Marmottan, Paris, 1892, 100 × 65 cm

Short passages from Last Testament (2016):

“But it is obvious that the Church is increasingly stepping out of the old European fabric of life, and is thus taking on a new character and a new form in her trajectory. Above all, we see how the dechristianization of Europe progresses, that in Europe things pertaining to Christianity are increasingly disappearing from the character of public life. So the Church must find a new kind of presence, must change her way of being present. There are seismic periodic changes in process. We do not yet know at which precise point we can say that one era begins and another starts” (232).

“Indeed, we cannot say ‘I have the truth’, but the truth has us” (241).