Letter to Cardinals and Bishops of the Catholic Church

Introduction:

Cardinal J. Ratzinger, today the Pope Benedict XVI, says in relation to historic-critical theology: “The tie between the Church and the Bible has been broken. This break began (2-3) centuries ago in the Protestant environment from where it has recently (after the Second Vatican Council) penetrated even into the circles of Catholic theologians…”

To the question whether a “modern” Catholic may read his Bible without caring about complicated exegetic questions, the present Pope replied: “Certainly every Catholic must have the courage to believe that his faith (in communion with the faith of the Church) exceeds every ‘new magisterium’ of so-called specialists, intellectuals… It is a prejudice of evolutionistic origin if one claims that the text may be understood just on the basis of the study of its origin and evolution. Today, the same as yesterday, the rules of faith are not at all based on the revealing of biblical sources and layers, but on the Bible as such, such as has been read in the Church since the times of our Church Fathers up to this day. The very faithfulness to this reading of the Bible gave us saints who were often uneducated and often no specialists in exegesis. And still, it is them who understood the Scriptures best.”

A German journalist A. Sarrach writes: “The historic-critical method which was used by biblical critics roused my distrust. The more I was working through from one famous name to another, the more it strengthened my impression that we have nothing to do with the history of biblical criticism, but with the history of speculations or with the history of pathology” (in relation to God’s Word).

Conclusion:

Concerning the historic-critical method, it is a method which without self-criticism builds one erroneous conclusion upon another. In the case of several critics one cannot help an impression that these are demagogues rather than researchers. Similarly as Marxism, fascism and racialist theories totally compromised their ideological foundations, biblical criticism has compromised whole theology through its atheistic ideology and demagogy. Broad-mindedly and self-confidently one flourished the term of historic-critical, though still less and less one thought in historical terms. The historical aspect was even consciously overlooked and the method grew more and more uncritical and unscientific.

Christ’s call: “Repent (metanoite) and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15) is in the first place not addressed to common believers or to public sinners, but especially to priests, religious, students of theology, teachers at theological schools, bishops and cardinals, who opened themselves for the spirit of atheism through the ideology of HCT. And above all to this group in the Church refers Christ’s word: “You are from below, I am from above, you are of this world, I am not of this world… Unless you believe that I am He (God and Saviour), you will die in your sins.” (Jn 8:23-25).