“From
today’s crisis, a Church will emerge tomorrow that will have lost a
great deal. She will be small and … will have to start from the
beginning. She no longer will be able to fill many of the buildings
created in her period of great splendour … Contrary to what has happened
until now, she will present herself much more as a community of
volunteers …
As a small community, she will demand much more
from the initiative of each of her members, and she will also certainly
acknowledge new forms of ministry and raise up
proven Christians who have a calling to the priesthood. The normal care
of souls will be made by smaller communities, in social groups with
some affinity. …
This will be achieved with effort. The process
of crystallisation and clarification will demand a great effort. It
will make her a poor Church and a Church of the little people … All this
will require time. The process will be slow and painful.”
Joseph Ratzinger,
Faith and Future (Glaube und Zukunft), 1971, pp. 76-77.
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