[Torie]

Merely to guarantee institutions is useless if there are no people to support those institutions from inner conviction.”

In the case of at least some colleges, Ratzinger’s instinct would thus be to drop the pretense that these are still Catholic institutions. He spelled this out in a book-length interview called Salt of the Earth: “Once the church has acquired some good or position, she inclines to defend it. The capacity for self-moderation and self-pruning is not adequately developed .... it’s precisely the fact that the church clings to the institutional structure when nothing really stands behind it any longer that brings the church into disrepute.”

The point applies also to hospitals, social service centers, and other institutions.

Do you have any comment on the above?

[sinkspur]

It is up to the local bishop to sanction Catholic institutions. I suspect Ratzinger won't change that.

[Servant of the 9]

Merely to guarantee institutions is useless if there are no people to support those institutions from inner conviction.” In the case of at least some colleges, Ratzinger’s instinct would thus be to drop the pretense that these are still Catholic institutions. He spelled this out in a book-length interview called Salt of the Earth: “Once the church has acquired some good or position, she inclines to defend it. The capacity for self-moderation and self-pruning is not adequately developed .... it’s precisely the fact that the church clings to the institutional structure when nothing really stands behind it any longer that brings the church into disrepute.”

The point applies also to hospitals, social service centers, and other institutions.

Do you have any comment on the above?

It needs to apply to clergy even more strongly.
Discard all who give only lip service.

SO9

[Dionysiusdecordealcis]

In the case of at least some colleges, Ratzinger’s instinct would thus be to drop the pretense that these are still Catholic institutions. He spelled this out in a book-length interview called Salt of the Earth: “Once the church has acquired some good or position, she inclines to defend it. The capacity for self-moderation and self-pruning is not adequately developed .... it’s precisely the fact that the church clings to the institutional structure when nothing really stands behind it any longer that brings the church into disrepute.”

The point applies also to hospitals, social service centers, and other institutions.

The whole article is nearly worthless. The NCR perspective on how the Church is governed is ridiculous--NCR hates the papacy, so a "conservative" like Ratzinger, to NCR, = big bureaucracy, crushing the lovely, beautiful, periphery from the big, bad Center.

But Ratzinger realizes that trying to control everything from the center can't be effective and only inspires opposition and is counterproductive. Yes, he'd try to strengthen institutions, but many of the measures outlined in this article _have_ to be done by regional or diocesan authorities to be effective. He's smart enough to know that.

This article tells you more about NCR/Liberal Catholic prejudices and ignorances than it does about Ratzinger.