Joseph Ratzinger discusses papal primacy in the Church, which is a communio based on the relationship between primacy and collegiality. Therefore, he supports jurisdictional primacy executed not in a monarchical way, but collegially, with the Pope as the head of the college of bishops. Joseph Ratzinger discusses the Petrine primacy in the New Testament, which he considers a starting point for a discussion about the succession of Peter’s office, choosing (via media) between papalism and conciliarism. He, therefore, focuses on the personal aspect of primacy connected with a given person. Moreover, the article discusses the relationship between the papacy and doctrinal infallibility. It also poses the question whether after his renunciation Benedict XVI still retains the charisma of doctrinal infallibility (or authentic orthodoxy) and how this refers to the current Pope Francis.

The author puts forward a hypothesis related to the interpretation of the thought of Joseph Ratzinger – Benedict XVI on the interrelation of time and eternity. Different religions offer different ways of departing temporality - the way of being within the confines of time - towards some extratemporal existence, commonly referred to as eternity or immortality. This perspective evokes a fundamental question: if time wants to reach beyond itself towards eternity, is it that eternity - in its turn - stays in a kind of interrelation to time, or is it a kind of negative atemporality? In its view of the matter, Christianity makes a clear statement that God has power over time, which implies that God participates in the temporal reality. This participation manifests itself overtly through the Incarnation of the Son of God. Consequently, this participation shows that man takes part in the eternity of God. In this sense, a Christian reaches eternity through his/her existence in the Person of the Resurrected Jesus. This ability to eternally remain in Jesus rests on the immortal element of the human being - that is his/her spiritual soul. The soul opens a path towards salvation and the relational eternity, that is a relationship of a Christian person with the Son of God and through Him with God as Trinitary Love. This is how Christianity – while respecting the linear nature of time – promotes a positive cyclical (yet not a reiterative) concept of time, which manifests itself in the exitus - reditus relationship. Exitus is an autonomous act of God’s creation, while reditus - is a human self-sacrifice as exemplified by the Son of God. Jesus’ self-sacrifice to God the Father is a model of how time can be projected onto a new way of existence: eternity. Therefore, Christ brings time to its fullness. His Event marks the beginning of eternity for the faithful

Der Artikel behandelt eine äußerst wichtige und zugleich schwierige Thematik der Beglaubigung das Faktums der Inkarnation in der gegenwärtigen Theologie und Anthropologie. Die systematische Überlegung wird auf die praktische Seite des christlichen Lebens übertragen. Diese spezifische Eigenschaft der Theologie von Karl Rahner dringt in die grundsätzliche christliche Relation ein, die Relation zwischen der göttlichen und der irdischen Welt auf der Ebene der personalen Vereinigung der beiden Naturen in Jesus Christus. Das Ereignis der Inkarnation macht die Rolle der Menschheit Christi im Erlösungswerk sichtbar. Es bringt die radykale Selbsthingabe des Menschen an den sich selbstmitteilenden Gott zum Ausdruck. Der heutige Mensch verwirklicht sich (erlöst sich) dank sejner Transzendenz zu Gott, die in Jesus Christus den absoluten Ausmaû erreicht hat. Das Emporsteigen des Menschen als transzendetalem Wesen zu Gott ist keine Autosoterie, sondern vollzieht sich seitens Gottes, der sich dem Menschen mitteilt und auf diese Weise zu seinem Erlöser wird. Zurecht bemerkt also Rahner, dass die Relevanz der Menschheit Jesu darin besteht, dass Gott durch den Gott-Menschen erlöst, d.h. „im Menschen erlöst”, wie die Römische Schule lehrte.

Joseph Ratzinger binds together the triptych “theology – the university – science” by the common issue of a search for the truth and the service to the truth. Theology is being done “in the Church and with the Church”, it belongs to the Church and depends upon her. Thus, theology is ecclesial in its essence, it teaches not in its own name but on behalf of the Church.

The ethos of the university – particularly of a Catholic university – consists in the common witness to the truth and in forming the transcendent dimension of man. Thus, the service to the human person is expressed by the university in developing “a new humanism” as a response to cultural and spiritual desires of the humankind. The mission of the university is not only its service to knowledge but also to the education, which means bearing witness to the truth that has been found.

According to Benedict XVI both theology and the university with science should know how to unite the two ways of knowing – faith and reason into one common tone, with its unique enhancing of reason. In a characteristic way Ratzinger gives special attention to rationality which leads to the ultimate Truth.