RATZINGER IN 1990: ANTI-MODERNISM HAS BEEN SUPERSEDED

Manifesto against provisional faith and truth with an expiration date.
"The text [of the instruction Donum Veritatis] also offers different forms of binding which arise from different levels of magisterial teaching. It states -perhaps for the first time with such clarity -that there are magisterial decisions which cannot be and are not intended to be the last word on the matter as such, but are a substantial anchorage in the problem and are first and foremost an expression of pastoral prudence, a sort of provisional disposition. Their core remains valid, but the individual details influenced by the circumstances at the time may need further rectification. In this regard one can refer to the statements of the Popes during the last century on religious freedom as well as the anti-modernistic decisions at the beginning of this century, especially the decisions of the Biblical Commission of that time. As a warning cry against hasty and superficial adaptations they remain fully justified …More