See these online texts and ebooks (I) by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger / Pope Benedict XVI and (II) about him and his thought, previously indexed on the Project.


I. Texts and ebooks by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger / Pope Benedict XVI:


II. Texts and ebooks about Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger / Pope Benedict XVI and his thought:

Posted on the Feast of Saint Zotikos, Feeder of Orphans, in the Eastern Catholic churches, in tribute to Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger / Pope Benedict XVI (+31 December 2022), past Defender of the Faith, future Doctor of the Church, and in service to his orphaned children, the faithful of the one true and Catholic Church. Goodbye and rest in peace, dearest and much-missed father, shepherd, and teacher, our beloved Papa Ratzi.

For other texts and ebooks, you may access the List of Free eBooks (Arranged by Title), the List of Free eBooks (Grouped by Subject), the List of Worth-It Catholic Books & eBooks, and the main page of the Catholic eBooks Project.

“The power of teaching in the Church involves a commitment to the service of obedience to the faith. The Pope is not an absolute monarch whose thoughts and desires are law. On the contrary: the Pope’s ministry is a guarantee of obedience to Christ and to his Word. He must not proclaim his own ideas, but rather constantly bind himself and the Church to obedience to God’s Word, in the face of every attempt to adapt it or water it down, and every form of opportunism…

“The Pope knows that in his important decisions, he is bound to the great community of faith of all times, to the binding interpretations that have developed throughout the Church’s pilgrimage. Thus, his power is not being above, but at the service of, the Word of God. It is incumbent upon him to ensure that this Word continues to be present in its greatness and to resound in its purity…”

(Homily of Pope Benedict XVI at the Mass of Possession of the Chair of the Bishop of Rome, 7 May 2005)

“[N]ot to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God’s nature… John began the prologue of his Gospel with the words: “In the beginning was the λόγος”… Logos means both reason and word—a reason which is creative and capable of self-communication, precisely as reason…

“[T]he faith of the Church has always insisted that between God and us, between his eternal Creator Spirit and our created reason there exists a real analogy… [T]he truly divine God is the God who has revealed himself as logos and, as logos, has acted and continues to act lovingly on our behalf… Consequently, Christian worship is, again to quote Paul—”λογικη λατρεία”, worship in harmony with the eternal Word and with our reason”.

(Pope Benedict XVI, 2006 Regensburg Address)

“Stand firm in the faith! Do not let yourselves be confused!

“It often seems that science[s]… are able to offer irrefutable results at odds with the Catholic faith… [but] on the contrary, apparent certainties against the faith have vanished, proving to be not science, but philosophical interpretations only apparently pertaining to science; just as, on the other hand, it is in dialogue with the natural sciences that faith, too, has learned to understand better the limit of the scope of its claims, and thus its specificity…

“[O]ut of the tangle of assumptions the reasonableness of faith emerged and emerges again. Jesus Christ is truly the way, the truth and the life — and the Church, with all its insufficiencies, is truly His body.”

(Pope Benedict XVI, Spiritual Testament)