Tijekom više desetljeća Joseph Ratzinger kritički se osvrtao na problem recepcije Drugoga vatikanskoga koncila u Crkvi i u svijetu. Autori izdvajaju i proučavaju šest njegovih relevantnih tekstova te su u svakome od njih uočili misao vodilju njegove kritike: posljedice liturgijske reforme, odnosa Crkve prema svijetu i ekumenski pokret u poslijekoncilskoj provedbi; nepomirljivost pluralnosti mišljenja i jedinstva tumačenja Koncila; vidljivi pothvati nakon Koncila s početnim oduševljenjem i kasnijim razočarenjem; Koncil kao jedan od čimbenika poslijekoncilske krize; prednost hermeneutike reforme i kontinuiteta pred hermeneutikom diskontinuiteta i loma. Na temelju navedenih tekstova i tema autori uočavanju Ratzingerovu glavnu tezu da su pogrješne prevladavajuće tendencije prilagođavanja Crkve modernomu svijetu te da se prava reforma odvija samo ako se slijedi hermeneutika reforme i kontinuiteta. For several decades, Joseph Ratzinger critically observed the problem of the reception of the Second Vatican Council in the Church and in the world. The authors select and analyze six of his relevant texts and, in each of them, they noticed the guiding thought of his critique: the consequences of the liturgical reform, the Church’s relationship to the world, and the ecumenical movement in post-conciliar implementation; the irreconcilability of the plurality of thought and the unity of interpretation of the Council; visible post-conciliar undertakings in the Church with initial enthusiasm and later disappointment; the Council as a factor of post-conciliar crisis; and finally, the advantage of the hermeneutics of reform and continuity over the hermeneutics of discontinuity and breakage. Based on the above texts and topics, the authors notice Ratzinger’s main claim that the prevailing tendencies to conform the Church to the modern world are wrong and that proper reform only occurs if one follows the hermeneutics of continuity and reform.