In an interview with the periodical Herder Korrespondenz, Benedict XVI highlights the growing distance between the authentic ecclesial mission and the “institutional Church”, made up of bureaucracy and documents without “the heart and the spirit”. A situation that does not only concern the Church in Germany, but is more general and feeds “the exodus from the world of faith”. Recalling his precious year as chaplain in Bogenhausen, Ratzinger reminds us that God alone is the answer against totalitarianism, past and present.

Access to Masses celebrated by the Pope in Slovakia is prohibited to those who are not vaccinated. And in Italy, the bishop’s daily newspaper launches a crusade against those who oppose mandatory vaccination. Fully espousing the pro-vaccination cause and the adoption of the Green pass, the Church of mercy that advocates tearing down all walls,  is building one around the Mass.

With the new papal decree imposing their democratisation, ecclesial movements are now reduced to associations and their charisms demeaned. This is a further stage in the process of constriction and standardisation that has already affected cloistered convents and even parishes. The large movements are now being regularised. Meanwhile, those movements that are nonconforming are under pressure and those that resist are being openly fought. Never before has there been such a wide range of organisations placed under external oversight, apostolic visits, centralisation of ecclesial power and fears of retaliation.

Pastors have penned us in an asphyxiating, overly materialistic enclosure, where only migrants, the unemployed, and the poor are also found. They tell us that the true Christian is one who uses air conditioning sparingly in the summer, who pays their taxes and gets vaccinated. They have replaced charity with solidarity, justice with pietism. Thus our life’s purpose has the taste of a bitter end. But we can save ourselves by building Noah's arks to take on board those who want to live for Eternity.

The most incredible phenomenon of the Covid period is the worldwide restrictions on masses and access to churches. The fact of having accepted without even fighting to renounce what we hold dearest, the Eucharist, adds to the astonishment. It calls us to recognize our misery and embrace conversion. This is the only way to ensure that this time will not have been in vain.