Faith and Culture Seminar
26 August 2026 Session
Ratzinger, Joseph. Western Culture Today and Tomorrow: Addressing the Fundamental Issues. Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2019, ‘Epilogue: The Church and the Scandal of Sexual Abuse’.
Contribution by Ratzinger as Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI published in a German journal in 2019 drawing from his experience with this problem.
The article is divided in three parts: (1) collapse in the normative standards on sexuality started in the 1960s, (2) its impact in the formation and lives of priests, and (3) reflections on how the Church can move forward.
1.1. Ratzinger provides clear examples on how governments in different countries implemented tenets of the ‘sexual revolution’ that came about in Western countries in the late sixties.
The all-out ‘sexual freedom’ purported by this movement also included pedophilia and also brought about new forms of violence. It also affected priestly vocations and perseverance.
1.2. Also starting in the sixties and more specifically after Vatican II, Catholic moral theology started to collapse as its previous foundation (natural law) was discarded in favour of a grounding only on the Bible
As some influential theologians were not able to find a systematic foundation to moral theology in the Bible alone, instead of returning to natural law they sought to ground it exclusively on purposes, on the goals of human actions.
Accordingly, if the goal was a good one, the individual action was permissible. Categories of good and evil mutated to those of ‘better’ and ‘worse’, to ‘relative value judgements’1.
Confusion across the Church when certain theologians started questioning the capacity and legitimacy of the Church’s magisterium in moral matters.
John Paul II addressed this situation in two steps. First, by providing the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which in Section One of Part III outlines the principles of Catholic moral theology in continuity with the three pillars of Tradition, Scripture and Magisterium. Second, by addressing the specific issues en vogue in his encyclical Veritatis Splendor, which defends the objective foundation of Catholic moral theology against contemporary moral relativism.
In the encyclical Saint John Paul II asserted that human freedom is realised only through obedience to revealed truth and natural law. It directly refuted utilitarian moral theories such as proportionalism and consequentialism, reaffirming the existence of intrinsically evil acts that no good intention or circumstance can justify. He clearly signaled a Catholic moral theology grounded in universal, absolute moral commandments, authentically safeguarded and interpreted by the Magisterium of the Church.
To those suggesting that the authority of the Church is limited to matters of faith only, the encyclical responds that the ‘Church’s Magisterium intervenes not only in the sphere of faith but also, and inseparably so, in the sphere of morals’2. Benedict XVI explains that ‘there is a moral minimum...indissolubly linked to the fundamental decision of faith’ that must be defended if faith is not to be reduced to a theory but rather recognised in its claim to concrete life’.3
‘The Decalogue’, continues Benedict XVI, ‘is an application to human life of biblical faith in God’. Morality and the image of God, manifested in Jesus Christ belong together. From the beginning Christianity was described as a path, as a way of life initiated, fostered and protected by the catechumenate. Even today similar communities are needed for Christianity ‘to hold its own ground’.4
2.1. The deep changes in morality affecting Western societies from the late sixties coincided with a crisis in the foundations of Catholic moral theology after the Second Vatican Council, compounded by interpretations of the ‘spirit of the council’ twisted towards the popular ideologies then en vogue. As it happened in schools and other settings, this unfortunate whirlwind reached many seminaries where priests were supposed to be formed but in reality they were being destroyed. This debacle was sometimes permitted―or even actively promoted―by bishops of a ‘conciliar’ bend (negative towards tradition). Seminarians caught reading Ratzinger were deemed ‘unsuitable for the priesthood’.5
2.2. The question of pedophilia exploded in the mid eighties. Canon Law didn’t have provisions strong enough to deal with this crime, with ‘temporary suspension’ as the strongest punishment possible. Garantismo, a cautelar provision in many civil law countries (such as Italy) to protect individuals from abusive governments was exacerbated in the Church and even worse, considered ‘conciliar’. Because of this it became virtually impossible.6
But in addition to the rights of the accused, another good needs protection, the Faith that for many crumbles before the scandal of pedophilia. Faith is no longer seen in law as a good to be protected, as it was in pre-modern times.7
This insight permitted Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger8 to find a way of dealing with the situation effectively circumventing the excesses of garantismo. Competency for these crimes passed to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as ‘major offences against the Faith’ and it became possible to expulse from the clergy (the maximum penalty), since misconduct of clerics, especially the one involved in pedophilia, damages, in addition to the victims, also the Faith of all members of the Church.
3.1. In the last part Ratzinger proposes three attitudes to face the crisis provoked but the sexual abuse scandals in the Church. In a way they are ‘counter-intuitive’ as they don’t appear at first sight very ‘practical’. However, on closer examination, they are the only proportionate response to the size of evil and damage displayed with this crisis. The first of these attitudes is acknowledging the existence of God, and God as Love as he has manifested to us through Revelation. ‘The counterforce against the evil that threatens us and the whole world’ is to enter into God’s Love. ‘The power of evil arises from our refusal to love God...Learning to love God is the path to human redemption’.9
‘A world without God can only be a world without meaning’. There are ‘no standards of good and evil..., power is the only principle...Truth does not matter, it does not even exist’. He continues: ‘...only if things have a spiritual ground, if things are willed and thought out―only if there is a Creator God who is good and wills the good―can the life of man, too, have meaning’.10
He explains further: ‘...the death of God in a society also means the death of freedom, because what dies is the meaning that gives it orientation...’ as well as ‘the measure’ that teaches us ‘to distinguish good from evil’. In societies where God has been cast out from the public sphere (such as many in ‘the West’), ‘...the measure of what is human dwindles away more and more. At some point, it becomes suddenly perceptible that what is evil and destroys man has become a commonplace. So it is with pedophilia.’11
In the last analysis, the reason for pedophilia to have reached such proportions, even within the Church, ‘lies in the absence of God. Even we Christians and priests prefer not to talk about God, since this kind of talk does not seem practical.’12
Moving forward, the ‘paramount task that must follow from the moral shocks of our time’ is to begin, ‘once again―we ourselves― to live by God and onto him’ recognising ‘God as the foundation of our life instead of leaving him aside as a somewhat fictitious cliché.’Benedict concludes: ‘everything changes if one presents God instead of presupposing him, if one does not leave him somewhat in the background, but instead recognises him as the center of one’s thoughts, words and actions.’13
Ratzinger gave us ample examples on how to do this as a Christian, priest, bishop, cardinal, pope and emeritus, as testified in his writings. This is why he is one of the main referents for our seminar group.
3.2. The second attitude regards the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. Vatican II was ‘rightly focused on returning this ‘this sacrament of the Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ, of the Presence of his Person, of his Passion, Death and Resurrection, once again to the center of Christian life and of the Church’s very existence.’ Christians in Western societies are not dealing ‘with the Eucharistic Celebration with a new reverence for the presence of Christ’s Death and Resurrection’, but rather as ‘a mere ceremonial gesture when one takes as a given the polite requirement that the Sacrament be offered’ with ‘Communion as a purely ceremonial gesture’.14
Benedict adds: ‘...we do not need another Church of our own design. Rather, what we need above all is a renewal of faith in the reality of Jesus Christ given to us in the Blessed Sacrament.’ This second attitude of course hinges on the first one about the existence of God we have seen above and is thoroughly explained in the Catechism.15
3.3. The last of the attitudes Benedict proposes moving forward is again counter-intuitive. It does not consist of a practical set of actions―he presupposes them of course―but rather calls our attention to the mystery of the very institution where these horrible abuses have occurred, the Catholic Church.
The Church is today ‘is widely regarded as just some kind of political apparatus. One speaks of it almost exclusively in terms of political categories, and this holds even with bishops, who largely formulate their vision of the Church of tomorrow exclusively in political terms.’16 The temptation is to attempt to fix it or to build a different one as we do with human institutions.
The Church, Benedict teaches, is depicted in the Gospel as a field with good seed and weeds (Mt 13:24-28) or as a net with useful and useless fish (Mt 13:47-50), with some members choosing and doing good and some evil. ‘The field is still God’s field and the net is God’s fishing net. In every age, there are not only the weeds and the evil fish, but also the seeds of God and the good fish. Proclaiming both with emphasis is not a false form of apologetics, but a necessary service to the truth.’17
Drawing from the Books of Job and Revelation, Benedict XVI shows how ‘[t]he Creator God is confronted with the devil who speaks ill of all mankind and all creation. He says, not only to God but above all to man: Look at what this God has done. Supposedly a good creation, but really it’s full of misery and disgust. In reality, this disparagement of creation is a disparagement of God. It wants to prove that God himself is not good, thus turning us away from him.’ To this, Benedict reminds us that ‘the Church—even today—is not just made up of bad fish and weeds. God’s Church exists even today, and this very day she is the instrument by which God saves us. It is very important to contrast the lies and half-truths of the devil with the whole truth: Yes, there is sin in the Church and there is evil. But even today there also is the Holy Church, which is indestructible. Even today there are many people who humbly believe, suffer, and love, in whom the real God, the loving God, manifests himself to us. Even today God has his witnesses (martyrs) in the world. We have only to be attentive in order to see and hear them.’18
This is an opportunity to remember what the Church is: One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic, of which we are members if inserted in Christ by grace, but which has been established and kept by God.19
What are the connections between the Sexual Revolution and crisis in Catholic moral theology from the late sixties and the scandal of pedophilia in the following decades?
What form could communities similar to those which in early Christianity the catechumenate provided have today? What is the place of the parish and of homeschooling groups as havens for the practice and experience of the faith today?
When Benedict points to the realisation of God’s existence as the first attitude towards overcoming the crisis of sexual abuse in the Church, does he mean that this realisation is lacking not only in secularised Western societies, but also in at least parts of the Church?
Why do you think Benedict XVI proposes reverence in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist and renewed faith tin the Real Presence of God in it as ways to remedy the crisis of abuse in the Church?
1. Ratzinger, Joseph. Western Culture Today and Tomorrow: Addressing the Fundamental Issues. Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2019, p. 151.
2. John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, Rome, 6 August 1993, n. 110.
3. Ratzinger, Western Culture, 153-154.
4. Ratzinger, Western Culture, 154-155.
5. Ratzinger, Western Culture, 156-157.
6. Ratzinger, Western Culture, 157-158.
7. As Taylor points out, as much as it is almost ‘inescapable’ not to believe in God in our Western societies today, only a few centuries ago―in 1500 for instance―‘it was virtually impossible not to believe in God’. Faith was then indeed a common good. ‘In these earlier days, societies and not just parishes but whole kingdoms were seen as standing together towards God, responsible for the “orthodoxy”...of their members’. Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age. Harvard University Press, 2007. Chapter 1: ‘The Bulwarks of Belief’, pp. 25 and 42.
8. He became Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1981.
9. Ratzinger, Western Culture, 161.
10. Ratzinger, Western Culture, 162.
11. Ratzinger, Western Culture, 163.
12. Ratzinger, Western Culture, 163.
13. Ratzinger, Western Culture, 164.
14. Ratzinger, Western Culture, 165.
15. Catechism of the Catholic Church, nn. 1322-1421.
16. Ratzinger, Western Culture, 167.
17. Ratzinger, Western Culture, 167-168.
18. Ratzinger, Western Culture, 169.
19. Catechism of the Catholic Church, nn. 811-869.