„The crisis reached by European Christianity is no longer primarily or at least exclusively an ecclesial crisis…. The crisis is more profound: it is not only rooted in the situation of the Church: the crisis has become a crisis of God. To sum up, one could say ‚religion yes‘, ‚God no‘, where this ’no‘, in turn, is not meant in the categorical sense of the great forms of atheism. There are no longer any great forms of atheism. Today’s atheism can effectively return to speaking of God—distractedly or calmly—without really intending him [his person]…. Furthermore, the Church has her own concept of immunization against the crisis of God. She no longer speaks today of God—as, for example, she still did at the Second Vatican Council—but only—as she did at the Council—of God proclaimed through the Church. The crisis of God is codified ecclesiologically.“

Johann Baptist Metz (1993), zit. nach THE ECCLESIOLOGY OF THE CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH, VATICAN II, ‘LUMEN GENTIUM’
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith [via Pontifications]