[O]nce again in the Epistle there is a reference to the somewhat gloomy situation of the community of the Galatians, when Paul says, "if you bite and devour one another; take heed you be not consumed one of another. ... Walk in the Spirit"[Galatians v, 15-16]. It seems to me that in this community - which was not on the path of communion with Christ, but of the exterior law of the "flesh" - even controversies naturally arise, and Paul says: "You become like beasts, one bites the other". He thus refers to the controversies which arise there where the faith degenerates into intellectualism, and humility is replaced with the arrogance of being better than the other.
We see well that also today similar things happen, where, instead of entering in communion with Christ, in the Body of Christ which is the Church, one wishes to be superior to the other, and with intellectual arrogance wants to make believe that he knows better. And thus arise the controversies which are destructive, [thus] arises a caricature of the Church, which should be one soul and one heart.
Benedict XVI
February 20, 2009
