ROME — Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's latest book Fede, Verità, Tolleranza (Faith, Truth and Tolerance), was published late last year in Italian. In the book, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith addresses some of the major issues confronting the Church today — inter-religious tensions, the clash of civilizations and the role of Christianity in resolving such conflicts.

Cardinal Ratzinger was interviewed about these issues in November by the Italian newspaper Il Giornale. The following excerpts from that interview were translated for the Register by Michael J. Miller.

Your Eminence, it has often been said that various religions are all paths that lead to the same God, and so one religion has the same value as another. What do you think of this idea, from a theological perspective?

I would say that, even on the empirical, historical level, this notion is not true, although it is well suited to today's way of thinking.

Ultimately the truth is one, God is one, and therefore all these expressions, which are so different and which were born at various historical moments, are not equivalents but rather are a road on which the question arises: Where are we going?

We can't say they are equivalent paths, because they are in dialogue among themselves, and naturally it seems clear to me that contradictory things cannot be means to salvation: The truth and the lie cannot be ways of salvation in the same sense.

Therefore this idea simply does not correspond to the reality of the world's religions and does not correspond to man's need to find a coherent answer to his serious questions.

Various religions recognize the extraordinary character of the figure of Jesus — it seems it is not necessary to be a Christian to venerate him. Is the Church unnecessary, then?

Already in the Gospel we find two possible positions with regard to Christ. The Lord himself makes the distinction: “What do people say?” and “What do you say?” He is asking: What do they say, the ones who know him secondhand, or in a historical, literary way; and then: What do they say, the ones who know him directly and have had a genuine encounter with him, have experienced his true identity.

This distinction remains present throughout history: There is an impression from outside that has elements of truth. In the Gospel we see that some say, “He is a prophet.” Just as today it is said that Jesus is a great religious figure, or that he is numbered among the avatars (the multifarious manifestations of the divine).

But those who have entered into communion with Jesus recognize there is another reality; he is God present in a man.

Isn't he comparable to the other great personages of the world religions?

They are very different from one another. Buddha essentially says: Forget me, just go along the way I have shown you. Muhammad declares: The Lord God has given me these words, which I hand on to you verbatim in the Koran. And so on. But Jesus does not fall into this category of personages, who are quite evidently and historically different.

Why?

He is a reality of an entirely different sort. He is part of a story that begins with Abraham, in which God shows his face, God reveals himself as a person who is capable of speaking and answering, who enters into history. And this face of God, of a God who is a person and who acts in history, finds its counterpart at that instant when God himself, becoming man, enters into time.

Therefore, even historically, one cannot compare Jesus Christ to the various religious figures or to the Eastern mythological world views.

Why, in your opinion, does a man living today need Christ?

It is easy to discern that the things made available by a world that is only material, or even intellectual, do not answer to the deepest, most radical need that exists in every man, because man has the desire (as the Church Fathers used to say) for the infinite. It appears to me that it is precisely our age, with its contradictions, its desperation, with the thousands who turn to quick fixes like drugs, that plainly illustrates this thirst for the infinite, and the only answer is an infinite love that nevertheless enters into finitude, to the point of becoming a man like me.

Of course it is a paradox that God, the immeasurable, has entered the finite world in human form. But this is just the answer that we need: an infinite response that nevertheless makes itself acceptable and accessible, for me, culminating in a man who is nevertheless the Infinite.

Recently a painful phenomenon came to light in the Italian press: the conversion of many immigrants from Islam, who — besides being in danger — find they are alone, without the support of the Christian community.

Yes, I read about it, and it grieves me. It's always the same syndrome, the tragedy of our wounded Christian conscience, which is unsure of itself.

Of course we must respect the Islamic states and their religion, but nevertheless we must also demand freedom of conscience for those who want to become Christians, and we must also courageously assist these persons, especially if we are convinced that they have found something that is the true answer.

We must not leave them all alone. We must do everything possible, so that in freedom and in peace they can live out what they have found in the Christian religion.