In a ringing defense of orthodox Roman Catholic teaching, Ratzinger told a packed St. Peter’s Basilica that the Church faced an uncertain future and was threatened by the rise of Christian sects around the world.
“An adult faith is not one that follows tides of trends and the latest novelties,” he said in a homily, denouncing a “dictatorship of relativism” that denied the existence of absolute truths promoted by the 2,000-year-old Church.
During his 23 years as doctrinal chief, Ratzinger’s office has produced a stream of documents reaffirming bans on women priests, contraception, abortion and gay marriage.
Since John Paul’s death on April 2, media and bookmakers have tipped Ratzinger, a close aide of the Polish pontiff and preacher at his funeral, as the early favorite to succeed him.
But most Vatican experts doubt that the 78-year-old German, whose uncompromising dogma has polarized the Catholic world, will be able to garner the two-thirds majority needed to become pope, leaving the field wide open.
Joseph Ratzinger is the right man for this job, period. Not that I won’t accept any others, but I really want him to be the next Pope. I don’t want a warm fuzzy church. I want the most literal interpretation of church doctrine we can possibly have.