How long did the dialogue go on?
It started in 1983 and ended in different ways, but with an official document five years ago. For a long time everything was silent. There was no issue with me. What does the official text say? The expression is that “everything was satisfactorily concluded.” You had several face to face meetings with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger? Yes, for most of them I was not summoned, but I took the initiative. Ratzinger is an intelligent, educated man and, within his own mentality, he has evolved, has understood many things. On one occasion in Rome he told me that he had read my book about Job. I myself sent him my books. I have always believed that distance creates illusions. He told me he liked it and that we Southern theologians had poetry, that European theology was colder. Your modus operandi has always been minimally confrontational, enormously dialogical, and lacking in drama. Some believe that this matches your personality, but I think there is something profoundly ecclesial here. Exactly. Ev
