Open letter from Leonard Swidler to Josef Ratzinger.(Church)

Dear Josef,

I am writing this as a man-to-man letter regarding your latest document concerning women, On the Collaboration of Men and Women.

We have known each other since 1964, when I published an article of yours promoting ecumenical dialogue in the first issue of the new scholarly journal my wife Arlene and I launched, the Journal of Ecumenical Studies. Further, we were fellow faculty members of the Catholic Theology Faculty of the University of Tubingen in the late 1960s, along with our mutual friend and colleague, Hans Kung.

I have to say that you have made the most fundamental mistake possible in writing this letter, namely, that you, a male, write it, telling women what …