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| Ratzinger Priestly Ordination June 29, 1951 |
When I look back I cannot but experience a profound gratitude over the fact that the "prize-work" of those days [the 1951 {prize-winning} doctoral thesis: "People and House of God in Saint Augustine's Doctrine of the Church"] did not only open the door to a lifelong friendship with Saint Augustine, but also put me on the trail of the eucharistic ecclesiology and thus gave me a way to understand the reality of "Church" which agrees with the deepest intentions of the Second Vatican Council and at the same time ushers into the spiritual center of christian existence.
Concluding paragraph of the new 2011 Prologue to People and House of God in Saint Augustine's Doctrine of the Church in The Complete Works of Joseph Ratzinger, Vol. I, p. 9 (German edition).
Plinthos translation.