More thoughts on Pope Benedict XVI...
A Wall Street Journal opinion piece linked to a 1999 book review of Ratzinger's Milestones: Memoirs 1927–1977 entitled Joseph Ratzinger, Christ’s Donkey. One interesting quote on the subject of ecumenism is here, with my emphasis in bold:

Later, during the student turmoil of 1968, the entirety of the Christian tradition came under scathing attack from Marxist ideologists in the university. Ratzinger suggests that he was naive in assuming that the theology faculties would be a bastion of sanity: quite the opposite turned out to be the case. While his own lectures continued to be well attended and well received, many of his theological colleagues were all too eager to get on the good side of the putative revolution. At this point he began to discover what would later be called "the ecumenism of the trenches," as he made alliances with Evangelical (Lutheran) colleagues who appreciated what was at stake. "We saw that the confessional controversies we had engaged in up until now were small indeed in the face of the challenge we now confronted, which put us in a position of having to bear common witness to our common faith in the living God and in Christ, the incarnate Word."

I'd be interested in hearing more of Benedict's "ecumenism of the trenches" and his relationship with the Evangelical Lutheran church.
Well, we all can read German - we should each pick one of Benedict's writings and read it!
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 4/22/2005 05:15:00 PM