"It is important to learn to understand in a historical text, a text from the past, the living Word o..." — Pope Benedict XVI

If it is true that the great missionaries of the 16th century were convinced that one who was not baptized was lost - and that explains their missionary commitment - in the Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council, that conviction was definitely abandoned.

It is evident that the Church is always abandoning more the old traditional structures of European life and, therefore, is changing its appearance and living new forms in itself. It's clear most of all that the de-Christianization of Europe is progressing, that the Christian element is always vanishing more from the fabric of society.

Attempts to construct an ethic from the rules of evolution, or from psychology and sociology, end up being simply inadequate.

The church is not a political power; it's not a party, but it's a moral power.