Fundamental Speeches from Five Decades

Over the course of five decades—while a professor of theology and throughout his rise in the Roman Catholic hierarchy—Joseph Ratzinger delivered many important speeches at the Catholic Academy of Bavaria. From 1963 to 2004 the broad spectrum of his topics ranged from the primacy of the papacy to the moral foundations of western society. The fundamental speeches in this volume are arranged thematically. And before each one is a brief introduction written by Dr. Florian Schuller, the director of the Catholic Academy of Bavaria in Munich, who also contributed the foreword. These speeches demonstrate not only Ratzinger’s breadth of knowledge, but also his prescience. The issues he addresses remain important to the Church and mankind today.