“Life is not just a succession of experiences. It is a search for the true, the good and the beautiful. It is to this end that we make our choices; it is for this that we exercise our freedom; it is in this that we find happiness and joy.”
Pope Benedict XVI
The Writings
Excerpts from the Writings of Pope Benedict XVI / Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
The Truth of the Resurrection
By Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger from Introduction to Christianity
What in Fact Is Theology?
By Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger from Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith: The Church As Communion
The Altar and the Direction of Liturgical Prayer
By Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger from The Spirit of the Liturgy
Benedict the Brusque? On Fr. Clooney’s Vision of interreligious Dialogue
By Carl E. Olson
The life, faith, and struggle of Joseph Ratzinger: An interview with Peter Seewald
By Carl E. Olson from Catholic World Report
Are Truth, Faith, and Tolerance Compatible?
By Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger from Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions
“Introduction to Christianity”: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
By Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger from Preface to the Second Edition (2004) of Introduction To Christianity
Seeing Jesus in the Gospel of John
By Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger from On The Way to Jesus Christ
Peter and Succession
By Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger from Called To Communion: Understanding the Church Today
The Essential Nature and Task of the Church
By Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger from God and the World: A Conversation With Peter Seewald
Related Articles & Reviews
Ratzinger on Ecumenism: A Reading List
By Carl E. Olson
Confronting Modern Culture; Asserting the Gospel
By James Hitchcock
Reflections on Benedict XVI
An Interview with Fr. Joseph Fessio, SJ
On Reading the Pope
By Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
Ratzinger and Regensburg: On What Is a University?
By Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
A Requirement of Intellectual Honesty: On Benedict and the German Bishops
By Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
Benedict and the Eucharist: On the Apostolic Exhortation, Sacramentum Caritatis
By Carl E. Olson
The Courage To Be Imperfect
By Fr. D. Vincent Twomey, S.V.D., The Introduction to Pope Benedict XVI: The Conscience of Our Age
Benedict XVI’s Theological Vision: An Introduction
By Monsignor Joseph Murphy from the introduction to Christ, Our Joy: The Theological Vision of Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI: Theologian of the Bible
By Fr. Joseph T. Lienhard, SJ from Homiletic & Pastoral Review
Pope Benedict XVI Praises Hans Urs von Balthasar
Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI
Why Do We Need Faith?
By Joseph Ratzinger from What It Means to Be a Christian
Faith in the Triune God, and Peace in the World
By Joseph Ratzinger from Europe: Today and Tomorrow
Suppose We Had a “Liberal” Pope
By Fr. James V. Schall, S. J.
The Way of Benedict
By Colleen Carroll Campbell
WYD 2005: A Festival of Grace
By Eric Thomason
The Encyclical: God’s Eros Is Agape
By Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
The Regensburg Lecture: Thinking Rightly About God and Man
By Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
Secularity: On Benedict XVI and the Role of Religion in Society
By Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
God Made Visible: On the Foreword to Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth
By Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
Vatican II and the Ecclesiology of Joseph Ratzinger
By Maximilian Heinrich Heim, Introduction to Joseph Ratzinger: Life in the Church and Living Theology
Ratzinger’s Faith and Reason
Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
Foreword to U.M. Lang’s Turning Towards the Lord: Orientation in Liturgical Prayer
By Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
How Should We Worship?
By Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Preface to Alcuin Reid’s The Organic Development of the Liturgy
For “Many” or For “All”?
By Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger from God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, the Heart of Life
Pope Benedict XVI on Jesus, the Apostles, and the Early Christians
Pope Benedict XVI
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger: Man for the Job
By James Hitchcock
Worshipping at the Feet of the Lord: Pope Benedict XVI and the Liturgy
By Anthony E. Clark
A Jesus Worth Dying For
By Justin Nickelsen
First Musings on Benedict XVI’s First Encyclical
By Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J.
Is Dialogue with Islam Possible? Some Reflections on Pope Benedict XVI’s Address at the University of Regensburg
By Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J.
Pope Benedict XVI On Natural Law
By Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
The Theological Genius of Joseph Ratzinger
By Carl E. Olson, An Interview with Fr. D. Vincent Twomey, S.V.D.
Pope Benedict XVI, Theologian of Joy
By Monsignor Joseph Murphy, an interview with the author of Christ, Our Joy: The Theological Vision of Pope Benedict XVI
The Reality of God: Benedict XVI on the Trinity
Fr. James V. Schall
On the Papacy, John Paul II, and the Nature of the Church
By Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger from God and the World: A Conversation with Peter Seewald
Music and Liturgy
By Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger from The Spirit of the Liturgy
Primacy in Love: The Chair Altar of Saint Peter’s in Rome
By Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger from Images of Hope
The Pope’s Childhood: In His Own Words
By Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger from Salt of the Earth, An Interview by Peter Seewald