Reply of Cardinal Ratzinger

23 June 1982

Your Excellency,

I thank you for your letter of 27 May last, and am anxious to inform you that I have not failed to pass it on to the Holy Father. Besides, the position that you took in Canada was already known in Rome.

I am grateful to you for the sentiments which you expressed on the occasion of the unfortunate events at Fatima. Do permit me, this notwithstanding, a personal afterthought. It is quite clear that you are in no way personally responsible for the sacrilegious attempt upon the Holy Father's life perpetrated by Father Fernandez‑Krohn. However, the fact that you agreed to ordain him priest gives rise to questions about the rigorousness of the criteria as to worthiness applied in his case. In a more general sense, are you sufficiently concerned to restrain and combat what must be called the fanaticism of certain members of the Society of St. Pius X? Reports recently reached me of a sad example of this, a sermon preached by one of them at Wurzburg on the occasion of his first Mass; this showed feelings falling little short of hatred for the legitimate Pastor of the diocese.

Please accept, Your Excellency, my feelings of fraternal respect and devotion in Our Lord.

Joseph Card. Ratzinger