Daily Inspiration Quote by Joseph Ratzinger

Ratzinger’s line is a carefully loaded alarm bell: not about ordination alone, but about who gets to define legitimacy in modern Europe. He frames the Church’s position as an internal matter of conscience and competence - “convinced of not having the right” - a telling phrasing that casts the ban not as stubborn patriarchy, but as a constraint the institution claims it cannot morally or theologically override. That rhetorical move flips the accusation. The Church isn’t refusing a reform it could grant; it’s insisting the reform is literally outside its jurisdiction.

The pressure point is the European Constitution, a symbol of a postwar project that treats equality norms as civic bedrock. Ratzinger is naming a collision between two sovereigns: liberal constitutionalism and a transnational religious body that answers to a different source of authority. The subtext is less “women’s ordination” than “will Europe tolerate thick institutions with non-negotiable doctrines?” He’s warning that what looks like a single policy dispute could become a test case for religious freedom, autonomy, and the boundaries of pluralism.

There’s also a defensive political instinct here. By describing “some” critics, he narrows the opposition to a faction, while still acknowledging the cultural tide. It’s a preemptive reframing: if conflict comes, it won’t be because the Church hates modernity, but because modernity is insisting on remaking the Church in its own constitutional image.