Joseph Ratzinger: "anti-Christian dictatorship would probably be much more subtle than what we previously knew"
"Naturally, it is not an anti-Christian persecution, it would be nonsense to call it this. But there are probably some areas of life - and not a few of them – in which it takes courage to admit to being a Christian. Above all, there is a growing danger of conformed forms of Christianity, which are received by society in a friendly manner as more ‘humane’ and which are juxtaposed with the alleged fundamentalism of those who are not willing to be streamlined in such a way. The danger of a dictatorship of opinion is growing and those who do not share the common view are cast aside. So, as a result, also good people dare not admit that they oppose. Any future anti-Christian dictatorship would probably be much more subtle than what we previously knew. It will seemingly be religion-friendly, but only until its behaviour and thought patterns will not be questioned.”
Joseph Ratzinger was in 1996 the prefect of the "Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith" (an important institution of the Catholic Church) and became later Pope Benedict XVI.
Source: Joseph Ratzinger, Salt of the Earth, Stuttgart 1996, p. 164