It is often claimed that Benedict XVI wants to see a "smaller but purer Church". This is cited as evidence that he is a hard-line Pontiff who has given up hope of winning Europe back to the Catholic faith. But on his Commonweal blog this week Fr Joseph Komonchak suggests that Joseph Ratzinger has never, in fact, said this.
One possible source for the claim is Salt of the Earth, a series of interviews conducted with the Pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, by the Bavarian author Peter Seewald.
