Pope Benedict XVI: The Church is a boat ‘on the verge of capsizing’

On July 15, 2017,  Pope Benedict XVI sent a message that was read aloud at the funeral of Cardinal Joachim Meisner, in which he said that the Church is a boat“on the verge of capsizing”.  The Pope Emeritus said that he was moved at the dubia cardinal’s ability to “live out of a deep conviction that the Lord does not abandon His Church, even when the boat has taken on so much water as to be on the verge of capsizing.”

Meisner was one of four courageous Cardinals who had written the dubia to Pope Francis, asking for clarification stemming from the confusion caused by Amoris Laetitia. Benedict XVI lauded Meisner, suggesting that the Church needs more cardinals like him. The Church, according to Benedict XVI, “stands in particularly pressing need of convincing shepherds who can resist the dictatorship of the spirit of the age and who live and think the faith with determination.” Because of this “pressing need,” Meisner “found it difficult to leave his post.”

The message of Benedict was read by Archbishop Georg Gänswein, his personal secretary and head of the papal household.