David Schindler on Cardinal Ratzinger's Ecclesiology

"The understanding of the Church as the sacrament of Christ's love has been an abiding feature of Joseph Ratzinger's life and will likely remain so, says a longtime colleague"

Highlights include:

"There was much discussion following the Second Vatican Council of the notion of the 'People of God' as the dominant understanding of the Church.

'Communio' does not so much contradict this notion as transform it, emphasizing the initiative of God, who established and maintains the unity of the Church through Jesus Christ with the cooperation of his mother Mary, whose fiat made her person the first home of God on earth -- hence the basic "figure" of the Church.

The notion of the Church as 'communio' thus contrasts with the notion of the Church as 'congregatio.' While 'communio' emphasizes the nature of the Church as a gift from God, established 'from above,' 'congregatio' indicates a community that comes to be 'from below,' by virtue of the decision of the individual wills of the community, in the manner of a democratic body.

This theocentric understanding of the Church as the sacrament of Christ's love has been an abiding feature of Cardinal Ratzinger's life. I think one can safely say that ecclesiology has always been at the center of his theological concerns, and was already indicated in his significant work at the Council itself, though he was only in his mid-30s at the time."

Good stuff. Hat tip to Father Bryce Sibley