You asked for it: 
Posted on 04/18/2005 2:22:37 PM PDT by Dajjal
Excerpt:
In truth, though, this soft-spoken Bavarian, who was consecrated priest at age 24, "is not so much doctrinaire as he is committed to the truth and sound doctrine," a leading Protestant theologian told United Press International Friday.
"He is arguably the Catholic Church's finest theologian, in addition to being a very humble and deeply religious man.
"If he is to be the next pontiff, we may expect extraordinary surprises of him," said this scholar who knows Ratzinger well but asked to remain anonymous.
One surprise may pertain to ecumenism and especially Eucharistic fellowship, Vatican observers said. While Ratzinger played an important role in the drafting of the papal encyclical "Ecclesia de Eucharistia" (Church of the Eucharist), which generally rules out intercommunion between Catholics and Protestants, he is known to have made some remarkable exceptions to this rule himself.
At the funeral Mass for John Paul II, Ratzinger communed the Rev. Roger Schutz, a Swiss Protestant pastor and founder of the Taizé ecumenical community in France.
A German Lutheran theologian well known to the cardinal told UPI that he, too, received the sacrament from his hands.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
In spite of these signs of friendship, Roger Schutz and Max Thurian remained profoundly attached to their Protestant origins. Their understanding of the "Church" was such that they wanted Catholics and Protestants to be considered as part of the same "Church." On May 25, 1975, at Katowice, Poland, Roger Schutz made the following statement:
What we ask of the bishop of Rome [sic] is that a reconciliation come about without requiring non-Catholics to repudiate their origins. Even with truly...catholic communion in view, repudiation goes against love. Besides this, repudiation is alien to the thinking of modem man.5
Then, in Rome, during a conference held at the Studies Center of St. Louis of France on March 11, 1976, Max Thurian stated the following: "For a Protestant, belonging to the visible Church is in the order of faith [this is true], even if certain institutional aspects are excluded from it. In this sense, if a Protestant has the conviction that the Catholic Church, following the Second Vatican Council, rediscovered conformity with the apostolic Church, he can then consider himself to be a member of that Church without, however, renoucing his adherence to another ecclesial community.”6 In other words, “double membership,” as if God has revealed opposing ths. From this arises the question of whether Max Thurian converted to the Catholic Faith before being ordained a “Catholic priest” in Naples.
Had he truly converted, or was he merely convinced that it was the Catholic Church that had converted after having "rediscovered" conformity with the apostolic Church? Who knows? The community of Taizé, when asked whether Thurian had repudiated his Protestantism, responded: "No, certainly not. No abjuration of the Protestant religion took place."1a
Although Catholic authorities have been pressured to respond to this very serious and legitimate question, it has been impossible to obtain a single word from them about this matter. Moreover, the ordination performed by Card. Ursi in Naples was kept secret until May 11, 1988.
There was no such announcement.
It is contrary to the Catholic faith to consider the different religions of the world as ways of salvation complementary to the Church. ... According to Catholic doctrine, the followers of other religions are oriented to the Church and are all called to become part of her. - Cardinal Ratzinger
Serious mistakes have sometimes been made in certain places: the location of the altar, tabernacle, and celebrants' chairs, overpowering illumination, excessive removal of ornamentation, etc...The fact that the celebrants and faithful constantly face each other closes the liturgy in on itself. (L'Osservatore Romano, "The Liturgy and Contemplation", 24 July 1996)
As long as he isn't one of those clowns in the Pius X society.
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=5649
A 210-page document titled “The Jewish People and the Holy Scriptures in the Christian Bible,” by the Pontifical Biblical Commission and authorized by the Vatican’s top theologian, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, reportedly states that “the Jewish messianic wait is not in vain.”
It reportedly says Jews and Christians share their wait for the Messiah, although Jews are waiting for the first coming and Christians for the second.
The new document also reportedly contains an apology to the Jewish people for anti-Semitic passages contained in the New Testament, and also stresses the continuing importance of the Torah for Christians.
But he added that when the Jews finally recognized/met their "long awaited" Messiah,they would find that He was Jesus Christ.
Only those still living at the time.
You asked for it:
WTF is that! Looks like Mass at the annual Fire Island White Party, sponsored by Ringling Brothers.
Duh. Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, and He's coming back. "For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery (lest you should be wise in your own conceits) that blindness in part has happened in Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in. And so all Israel should be saved, as it is written: There shall come out of Sion, he that shall deliver and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." (Rom 11:25-26).
Of course that doesn't mean that the Jews have a valid reason to reject their Messiah, or his historical form, the Church...
Indeed, the Church, guided by charity and respect for freedom, must be primarily committed to proclaiming to all people the truth definitively revealed by the Lord, and to announcing the necessity of conversion to Jesus Christ and of adherence to the Church through Baptism and the other sacraments, in order to participate fully in communion with God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Thus, the certainty of the universal salvific will of God does not diminish, but rather increases the duty and urgency of the proclamation of salvation and of conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ. - Cardinal Ratzinger
I FR mailed the entire article to you.
At this time, I am thinking it's more of a media smear.
What it's not is an SSPX Mass, nor an SSPX "clown".
It's going to be non-stop until a Pope is chosen, and won't stop if he's perceived to be the slightest bit 'conservative' (whispered, as though a bad word). Thanks for the pm. I don't know who I'd like to see, maybe Cardinal Arinze or Biffi. I missed those threads. I don't know about Cardinal Ratzinger, but I'll be reading about him with interest.
I haven't been able to find enough sources to know what to think...I do know that I admire Ratzinger's theological writing a whole lot. To judge a person from sites that might have their own agenda goes against my grain.
I will put it in in the hands of the Holy Spirit and pray the Rosary and Divine Mercy. God knows what he's doing.
And, looking at the quote:
Insistence on discontinuity between both Testaments and going beyond former perspectives should not, however, lead to a one-sided spiritualisation. What has already been accomplished in Christ must yet be accomplished in us and in the world. The definitive fulfilment will be at the end with the resurrection of the dead, a new heaven and a new earth. Jewish messianic expectation is not in vain. It can become for us Christians a powerful stimulant to keep alive the eschatological dimension of our faith. Like them, we too live in expectation. The difference is that for us the One who is to come will have the traits of the Jesus who has already come and is already present and active among us.
This looks to me like the "Jewish messianic expectation" is actually referring to the attitude maintained before the coming of Christ, and the point is that Jesus is the fulfillment of that expectation. Hardly what you implied. Another quote:
These Jews call the Christian faith into question; they do not accept that Jesus is their Messiah (Christ) and the Son of God. Christians cannot but contest the position of these Jews.
Per my post:"although Jews are waiting for the first coming and Christians for the second."
That's "reportedly". Quote the real passage? I've given you the link.
“Jewish messianic expectation is not in vain.”
“These Jews call the Christian faith into question; they do not accept that Jesus is their Messiah (Christ) and the Son of God. Christians cannot but contest the position of these Jews.”
Your quotes, from the same source, are quite contradictory.
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