An Open Letter to Cardinal Ratzinger

January 28, 2022
Feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas

 Dear Cardinal Ratzinger,

You have been in the news lately, and it has not been good news either for you or for the many victims who have been reminded of the suffering they are dealing with at the hands of the church over the past decades. 

I write this letter because I am concerned about you as you face your last years and some unpleasant truths are coming out about your protecting pedophile priests who wrecked great harm on innocent children while you were archbishop in Munich.  And about your lying to a commission about having been at an important meeting when a priest who ended up accosting 23 boys was discussed.

You may remember me, as I was one of the 108 theologians that you denounced in your time as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly known as the Office of the Holy Inquisition).  My name is Matthew Fox and you saw to it that I was expelled from my Dominican Order after 34 years of trying, however imperfectly, to live its lofty motto, “Truth.” 

Since my expulsion I have been received into the Episcopal Church which has allowed me to continue my vocation as a theologian and to celebrate now over 110 “Cosmic Masses” by which we have brought post-modern art forms including rave, dj, vj, rap, and of course dance, to our tired liturgies of the West.  For this I am grateful to them and to you also for expelling me and thus putting me on a more liberated and creative path to continue my theological and priestly vocation especially with the young.

I am pleased to learn that you have apologized publicly for not telling the truth regarding the grave matter of priestly pedophilia in your diocese of Munich.  This offers hope that before your life ends you might apologize to many whom you have offended in your powerful positions at CDF and as pope.  A time of confession and release seems close at hand for you and I seek to bless you on your journey. 

I think it would be wise to apologize to the church as a whole for your spreading fear of theologians—and therefore of thinking—upon the household of the church.  Condemning thinkers or theologians is one reason the church is so wobbly at this time and so many people have left it, especially young people who find the hypocrisy unbearable and who grew up with the news of clerical abuse of children their own ages that was rampant.  Just one example is that of Cardinal Law in Boston here in the United States who, not unlike you, approved of sending a priest who abused 150 boys from parish to parish and even diocese to diocese and whom you rewarded or ‘elevated’ to be overseer of the 4th century basilica of Maria Maggiore in Rome and thus escaped testimony under oath in the courts of Massachusetts.  (I pounded my 95 theses for reforming the church at that basilica for that very reason; just as I pounded them at Wittenberg at the season of Pentecost the year you became pope.)

There is also the horrible case of Father Maciel that you knew about for years and let languish on your desk at CDF who abused many seminarians in his Order and who, as it turned out, was also married twice on the side and sexually abused his own children and was a drug addict.  And about whom you refused to act for years, saying that he “does so much good for the church,” meaning I guess, that he raised more money from the uber wealthy than anyone else in the twentieth century church.

But the forgiveness you seek is not only for pedophile clergy but the reason behind it which is: Ecclesiolatry.  There is such a thing as making an idol of the church itself.  This is done every time a member of the hierarchy chooses to put the “reputation of the church” ahead of the rights of a human being, especially a child.  See what havoc is wrecked when one follows such idolatries.  The irony is that the church you sought to protect at all costs is wounded far more deeply by this deception than had the truth been allowed to flourish and real action had been enacted.

It is good to see you are apologizing in your advanced age.  I invite you to seek forgiveness for the following actions as well:

Calling Thich Naht Hanh, a true saint in our times, the “anti-Christ.”   He passed the very week news of you broke.  I knew him and his holy work well and he was indeed “another Christ” and “another Buddha” as we are all called to be—and which he taught.

Forbidding Catholics to practice yoga because it may put them “too much in touch with their bodies.”

Telling women they cannot be ordained because Jesus did not ordain women, knowing full well that he did not ordain men either and that the priesthood was a second century, not a first century, creation.

Condemning homosexuals viscously in two papal documents and refusing apparently to study any science (a la Galileo times) about the truth that 8-10 % of any human population is gay and that 364 other species have been identified that house homosexual populations.

Canonizing the Spanish fascist priest and founder of Opus Dei, Josemaria Escriva and rushing his canonization process through in record time while forbidding those who knew him very well from voicing their objections and witness to his very dubious character including his misogyny, control compulsions and heated vitriol against women who worked for him.

Promoting Opus Dei to an elevated status.

Appointing numerous Opus Dei hierarchy in South and North America including of course the current head of the United States bishops conference.

Killing liberation theology and base communities in South and Central America and in the process being complicit with “at least 10,000 murders there” as a priest very familiar with the South American scene told me.

Rushing through the canonization of JPII, your mentor and enabler, who was very much complicit in many of these actions named above.

Becoming a lightning rod for authoritarian and fascist figures including but not limited to Cardinal Burke, Stephen Bannon, and many bishops whom you appointed in the United States and beyond.

Putting obedience before truth and justice and compassion, thus contradicting the teachings of Jesus.

Rendering theology “dead” in Europe as a theologian at my alma mater, the Institut catholique in Paris put it to me.

Being a bully in your hierarchical positions.

Calling Creation Spirituality, which has been my life’s work and has inspired many especially those trying to save Mother Earth, “dangerous and deviant.”  It is hard not to see such language as being a projection from you.  Beware of projection and the scapegoats it makes.  I would think someone who came of age under the Nazis would be especially sensitive to that practice, so common among fascists.  I am at peace to let history determine whether CS or the truths emerging now about your acts of commission and omission have been, in your words, “dangerous and deviant.”

You embarrass yourself in many of these instances—surely in calling Thich Naht Hanh “anti-Christ.”  And your condemning of my work such as “calling God Mother” (which Hildegard, Mechtild, Eckhart, and Julian all did); calling God “child” (ever heard of Christmas?); being a “feminist theologian” (Jesus supported women—why don’t you?—St. Hildegard was a feminist); “working too closely with Native Americans”-- what does that even mean?  Native Americans have graced me with their wisdom and their profound ceremonies that honor Mother Earth and our bodily condition.  They do not pray in their heads.  I hope you can lift yourself of these embarrassments with a heart-felt apologies before you leave this earth.

Some people have proposed that a proper penance for your public sins would be to cease wearing the papal white outfit that you wear.  I think that would be a beginning but maybe an ancient church practice might follow on that: the wearing of sackcloth and ashes (not all the time but for photographs).  I think that would be humble but modest penance for the damage that has been done to many and especially the young boys who have been traumatized for life.  The ashes could be simple: what one wears on Ash Wednesday.

I had a Dominican professor in my training who used to say that “a kitten born in an oven is not a cookie.”  He was emphasizing the essence of a thing by his statement.  The public is now aware that your white robes did not tell the story of your actions and thoughts inside you.  But the revelations now made public reinforce the message that it is our insides that need cleansing, as Jesus taught.

So I pray for you and your soul in these final days of your life on earth, Joseph Ratzinger, pope emeritus.  I hope that you can continue on the path you have started out on to apologize for your faulty decisions over the years.  It is a good path,  None of us is perfect.  It is never too late to seek penance and forgiveness and time is running out for you and for the many you have offended to hear from you.  I hope you will consider my proposals in the decisions you are currently making.

Your brother,

Matthew Fox, oops (once of the order of preachers).

P.S. Thank you for canonizing Hildegard of Bingen and making her a doctor of the church.  I was blessed to teach two courses on the internet this past year on Hildegard and we had over 1200 students learning about her in the two classes.  I am sure this pleases you as it does me.

Remembrances of Cardinal Arns: A True Christian Leader

 On December 14th, the world lost an authentic leader and an authentic Christian.  His name was Paulo Evaristo Arns and he was Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church during and after the Brazilian military junta ran the country.  He dared to challenge the brutal dictatorship which reigned from 1964 to 1985 (often with American warships anchored offshore supporting the regime).  It was he who kept the files on the many political prisoners caught, tortured and murdered under that regime.  These files were made public after the military was overturned.  He fought strongly against torture and protected activists in his churches.  He threatened to excommunicate police investigators who refused to provide information on political prisoners. 

In 1975, at the height of the dictatorship, he organized in the Sao Paulo Cathedral an open act of defiance of Brazil’s government when he invited other religious leaders for a prayer service and accused the regime of assassinating journalist Vladimir Herzog.  Herzog had been taken as a political prisoner and the official explanation was that he had committed suicide in jail, but Arns publicly rejected that lie during the Mass, while tanks and soldiers surrounded the Cathedral.  He was a man of genuine courage.

Arns was a strong supporter of Liberation Theologian Leonardo Boff, with whom he shared a brotherhood in the Franciscan Order. When Boff was called to Rome for a dressing down and silencing by the new Inquisition set up by Pope John Paul II and headed by Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), Arns accompanied Boff to his trial, but was not allowed into the proceedings.  Arns stood up for liberation theology and base communities and theologians all over Latin America long before the appointment of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as archbishop of Argentina (later to become Pope Francis).  He was Bergoglio’s elder.

How did the Vatican respond to Arns leadership on behalf of the poor?  They chose to cut his diocese in two and put a conservative prelate in charge of overseeing the poorest section of the diocese, while putting Arns in charge of the newly created diocese of the wealthy.  An action of profound cynicism – not untypical of the reigns of JPII and Cardinal Ratzinger.

The Vatican also silenced Bishop Casigalida, the prophetic and mystic-poetic bishop in the Amazon who was a close ally of Cardinal Arns.  One of the charges against Casigalida, who was personally close to Archbishop Romero of El Salvador, was that he called Romero a “saint” after his assassination.  One needs to remember that the Vatican fought tooth and nail against Archbishop Romero and his support of the poor and his standing up against the military, right up to the time that his life was ended by a military assassin while he was celebrating a public mass. 

It was my distinct privilege in 1990, the year that I was silenced by the Vatican, to have a 50-minute private sit-down meeting with Cardinal Arns in his office in Sao Paulo. His English was excellent; indeed, he was fluent in nine languages.  He spoke very bluntly to me, brother to brother, and I believed then as I do now that I was in the presence of a brave and truthful man, one who felt pressured to share the truth of his experience in the church with this young Dominican theologian (I was about 50 years old and had not yet been expelled from the Order by the Vatican). 

Among my recollections of our conversation were the following.

Arns said that Pope John Paul II actually was fluent in very few languages and was a terrible listener.  It was as if he had nothing to learn from anyone.  When as bishop Arns made the customary annual report of his diocese, the Pope’s eyes would wander on the ceiling and he seemed utterly bored and uninterested.  One time, in an effort to get his attention, Arns delivered his message in Polish believing JPII might respond.  Nothing.  No interest whatsoever.

He said JPII was not at all interested in running the church, but very much enjoyed going on the road and being adulated by fans and the press—he was an actor by aspiration after all.  (This very much corresponded with a story I had heard from an American Dominican source who was told not to be upset if JPII would bring up troubling issues over a meal, but rather to remind him how much he was venerated in Yankee Stadium or at Youth Conventions in Ireland and this would take him entirely off subject as he reminisced of being loved and lionized on the road.) 

Arns said JPII turned over the running of the church to “the German mafia” who were making all the important decisions.  And Pope JPII wanted it that way.  This of course paralleled information I learned from Penny Lernoux who lived and worked as a journalist in Latin America. 

She told me that the German church provided the most money to the Vatican (yes, more than the American church) and lots of leadership. This included of course Cardinal Ratzinger, who not only silenced the most–read Catholic theologians in Latin America (Boff), North America (myself), and Europe (Father Eugene Druerrmann of Germany), but also led the charge to destroy liberation theology and base communities.  He did this both through theological attacks and by replacing prelates who were living out the values of justice for the poor with far-right church men from the uber-conservative orders, Opus Dei and the Legion of Christ (the former founded by Josemaria Escriva, a fascist who praised Hitler; the latter founded by Marcial Maciel, a serial molester of his seminarians and even his four secretly-sired children[1]).

“What is the future of the church in Latin America?” I asked Arns, and his reply was striking to me.  He said: “Ecumenism.  The future of the Church is linking up with other churches and other religions.”  He saw no other way and no other avenue for authentic reform within the Catholic Church itself.  This particularly made an impression on me at the time, because up to then I had never associated Latin America with ecumenism as such.  It was so heavily Roman Catholic, having been conquered by Spanish and Portuguese missionaries furthering the imperial military ambitions of the kings in the 16th century. As I have learned since from Native peoples, those missionaries claimed as their mandate the infamous “Doctrine of Discovery” written by two popes in the 15th century, justifying the slavery of conquered peoples when so-called “Christian empires” encountered them.  The present pope has yet to denounce that horrible document but one prays that he will and with haste.

Two years ago, I was in a public dialog with Leonardo Boff in a large conference in Monterrey, Mexico and one question posed us was this: “Is Roman Catholicism dying in Latin America?”  Replied Boff: “Yes.”  And he too called for more ecumenism.  I heard at that moment echoes of this very intelligent, very thoughtful, very forward thinking prelate, Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns, a loyal friend of Leonardo.

I left my meeting with Arns deeply moved and feeling I was in the presence of a true leader and a holy man, one whose courage was everywhere to be seen—courage vis-a-vis both “secular” and “ecclesial” powers.  Truth mattered to him.  The Gospel mattered to him.  And the poor mattered to him, along with the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and of Liberation Theology regarding a preferential option for the poor.  I wondered then and since: What if he had been named pope instead of the CIA’s right hand man, John Paul II?  How would history have been changed? 

Since then, of course, the first Latin American Cardinal has been named Pope and Pope Francis does seem to be attempting to change much in the Roman Catholic Church.  One prays for him and wishes him well.  And we can all be grateful for his elder, Cardinal Arns, who was far ahead on so many issues in his day.

We can all still learn from Cardinal Arns—his candor and his courage and his standing up for justice and truth.  In this time of the rise of the right in politics and in much religion, we can all carry on his genuinely Christ-like spirit.  Here was a man who walked his talk.  And his talk was of Good News of the Gospel and hope for the oppressed. 

It seems like a fitting message at Christmas time, 2016.  We do not have to sentimentalize a baby Jesus in a manger.  Instead we can honor the Divine Presence wherever the poor and oppressed gather to see their dignity respected, whether it be Black Lives Matter, or soup kitchens feeding the hungry, or LGBTQ people seeking their right to be themselves in the face of governmental powers overreaching their constitutional limits. 

We can follow the path of Sister Dorothy Stang who was martyred in Brazil 11 years ago for daring to act with the peasants in the Amazon, standing up and being counted when powerful land owners tried to dispossess their lands and rights.  She is one of thousands who have met premature death because they lived by the same principles that Cardinal Arns lived by and supported so generously.

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[1] Further information on these organizations and goings-on can be found in my book, The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and What can be Saved.

A Response from a Woman in Germany to "The Pope's War."

This very moving response to my book holds, I believe, many lessons for others about what bad religion does to the soul.  With the poet's kind permission I reprint it here because I believe it also holds truths that can heal many others.  Feel free to respond with comments of your own to this moving and heart-felt piece.  It came to me by way of Joanna Macy who is a friend both of the author and of myself (thus the references to "Joanna").

Thank you.

Matthew Fox

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April 2012

Coming from Gratitude

My heart is so over flowingly full that I don’t know where to start, Joanna. And I should actually write this letter to Matthew Fox, to this courageous, truly Christian “whistle-blower”. He would rejoice to have freed once again another human child with his book about Ratzinger. May God protect him and bless him every day!

What immeasurable suffering in the name of God does he impeach! I bow to all the humans on the earth – and especially in South America – that since the Second Vatican Council have been abused, ridiculed, betrayed, condemned, persecuted, tormented, killed for their integrity and mercifulness, for their compassion and sense of justice by the church and politics. They believed in the good in humanity and in the creation.

This is closeness to God, true closeness to God!

Honoring my Pain for the Child

Compared to this, my suffering is small. But it is the suffering of an entire life. And although I very consciously tried to protect my children from this, I still passed it unconsciously and unwillingly on to them. I can perceive i when I see their efforts to be worthy of love and respect.

Ratzinger, the High Inquisitor …

I find him: in my father, -who denounced me even before I could say “I”; -who beat my bottom as a child until black and blue with a wooden spoon; -who determined the length of my skirts, when other girls where wearing miniskirts; -who let someone examine my virginity and sent a detective after me; -who let me feel day after day, that I am the wrong daughter – lazy, dishonest and rotten to my very core. Ratzinger, the High Inquisitor …

I find him: in my mother, -who never protected me, -who never rejoiced over me or with me, -who never inquired after Tomas, my children or my work, -who condemned my life relentlessly -who disinherited me and lied to me about it nine years long.

Ratzinger, the High Inquisitor …

I find him: in my brother, -who fought the “antichrist” in me, -who found me guilty of depravity and conspiracy against his church, -who used the inheritance of our parents to punish me for my impiety, -who promised “to force me on to a park bench as broken vagrant in my old age”.

Well, my father died early. But my mother and my brother became fervent followers of Pope Wojtyla. And then of Ratzinger, whose books were their bibles which gave them arguments and judgments whose subtlety and cynicism I could never understand.

But, Joanna, it’s not as if it was only after the influence of Wojtyla and Ratzinger that my family became so fundamentalist, self-righteous and callous. My parents had been like this before. Now I believe, |that they had retained all of that from the times of National Socialism and into the post-war era: their zombielike obedience to higher authorities, their intolerance of dissidents, their habit of looking for the enemy outside themselves and to propagate their worldview as the only one that’s valid.

And in God’s representatives on earth, Wojtyla and Ratzinger, my mother and my brother finally found divine confirmation of their narrow-mindedness and heartlessness.

Seeing with New Eyes

None of this is new. New is the insight of how deep in my being, in the way I am these convictions are grounded: That I am the wrong daughter. That deep in myself I am so evil and guilty, that not even my father and my mother could love me. That I never do enough. That I never try hard enough. That I don’t listen enough to others. That I only think about myself. That my compassion is nothing but silly sentiment. That I don’t understand enough and don’t love enough. That I deserve to be ostracized and punished.

I look back on my life and see clearer than ever how these convictions have contaminated my whole life, my feelings and actions. Have I ever done anything that was good and beautiful enough? Have I ever sung full-throatedly? Have I ever danced without watching myself critically? Have I ever loved without feeling guilty of not loving enough? Have I ever trusted someone so much, that I wasn’t waiting for the next attack? Have I ever allowed myself to become convinced that I am loveable? Did I believe myself when I was happy? Did I believe myself when I was in deep pain Have I ever rejoiced in being born as the person Marliese? Have I ever celebrated myself? Have I ever known the simple and unclouded joy of being?

This person Ratzinger hasn’t come unto me from the outside. I have cut my teeth on him. And through fatherly violence he became manifest. I couldn’t perceive him because he was part of my perception. Perhaps you can compare it to a canvas screen On to which my whole life is projected like a movie. It is not and never has been my life which was stained and overshadowed. It was the canvas screen itself … All my shame, my self-doubts and self-contempt, my self-condemnation and self-aggression are the shadow of the catholic God on the canvas screen of my life. How many years of my life have been shaped by the futile attempt to realize and understand all of this!

With his analysis of Ratzinger Matthew has opened my eyes. He has returned to me a part of my life. He has bestowed my lost liveliness back on me. This is one of the happiest moments of my life! It’s a redemption!

Going Forth

But there is and always has been a memory in my life, Very hazy and fleeting, buried under pangs of conscience and feelings of guilt. It’s the memory of how it felt to wake up on a beautiful summer morning with an unfounded thrill of anticipation and in the trust of being God’s beloved and protected child. Even now, when I try to describe this memory, it seems to fade away with each word. Perhaps it comes from a time where I didn’t have words for it. It’s the memory of the moment of simple grace. Moments of the divine child, “the one up there” or the universe rejoices over. The moments, Johanna, that I was allowed to spend with you during the last 26 years come very close to that. But as consistent moments that belong to my awareness of life I thought to have lost them forever. But are they really lost, Signora Pavacini?

When I watch the movie of my life with keen eyes now it seems to have always been torn between: the God of my family: the controlling and relentless and punishing God and the God of my spiritual longing: the curious and smiling and unconditionally loving God. But the God of my spiritual longing has never left me. He guided me to the Lake Neusiedl and into the puszta, to the gypsies and their music, to the Beatles, to Francois Villon, to Jack Kerouac, Bertrand Russell, John Lilly, Timothy Leary and Ram Dass, to Castaneda, to Tomas and Nina and Sarah, to Lama Govinda and Ernest Callenbach, to the sufis and the Advaita Vedanta, to Ghandi, to Ramana Maharshi and Krishnamurti, to the Indians of North America, to the shamans of Africa, to the soil in my garden, to the nightingale, to the people of Tibet, to deep ecology, to the castors in Gorleben, to the shaft Konrad and to the Asse, to Kathleen, to Joanna at so many places where people meet.

What wild abundance have I received to celebrate the diversity of the world and of humans! Yet there is something very important missing: the way into the ugly center of power of the Catholicism of my origins, the way into the netherworld of a Josef Ratzinger. Not even the Tibetans could offer me refuge from that. I’ve always run away from that.

So perhaps it was the loving God of my spiritual longing who has sent me now to you, Joanna, and like you fulfilled my desires in so many years – even those you didn’t know about – even those I didn’t know about – you fulfilled my desire for healing with your presence and finally with this book from Matthew Fox.

I can only thank you, Joanna, and Matthew Fox than in preserving and sharing the light that has risen in my heart day by day.