When a Prominent Voice Spoke the Truth ‑Astonishment

Western public opinion had only a vague idea of the black misfortune in which the captive nations found and still find themselves. This was so much so that when, in 1984, a man of remarkable apostolic intrepidity had the courage to issue a strongly worded overview of the situation, the West reacted as if the explosion of a bomb had been heard throughout the whole world.

Who was this man? A world renowned theologian, a prominent figure in the life of the Church, he is Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

And what did he say? "Millions of our own contemporaries legitimately yearn to recover those basic freedoms of which they were deprived by totalitarian and atheistic regimes which came to power by violent and revolutionary means, precisely in the name of the liberation of the people. This shame of our time cannot be ignored: while claiming to bring them freedom, these regimes keep whole nations in conditions of servitude which are unworthy of mankind" (Instruction on Certain Aspects of the "Theology of Liberation, " Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, August 6, 1984, no. XI, 10).

He said all that, and only that‑and public opinion in the West trembled. Now, years later, the gigantic crisis that embroils the Soviet world proves not only that the cardinal was right, but also that his valiant words had only been a concise description of the horrible reality.