I find this to be a profound statement on (then) Ratzinger's part: the Church of Rome is a local Church with a universal responsibility.
That ecclesiology seems, in my limited knowledge, to be very much consonant with the first millenium (particularly the first half of same).
"The church of Rome is a local church and not the universal church?a local church with a peculiar, universal responsibility, but still a local church."
"That ecclesiology seems, in my limited knowledge, to be very much consonant with the first millenium (particularly the first half of same)."
Particularly the "first half of same"!
What the pope says is consistent with Orthodox ecclesiology. The "catholic" Church in its fullness exists within the local diocese under its bishop. But the "catholic" Church as the universal Church is more than the sum of its dioceses. I am a bit surprised that none of these men refer to +Ignatius of Antioch's definition of The Church in his Letter to the Smyrneans or otherwise to his theology of the Eucharist as definitional of the "catholic" Church.