Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, is one of the most prominent Catholic figures today. As a leading cardinal inside the Vatican, he has a privileged perspective on the worldwide state of the Church and on the most pressing theological, doctrinal, and moral questions of our times, which he strives to answer in this interview in clear and inspiring terms, as did his predecessor Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in The Ratzinger Report.

What are these questions? What do their answers call forth from the believer? Many people today do not see the lack of faith as a major problem in their lives; rather, what worries them profoundly is the lack of hope. The key questions therefore involve hope and whether the Christian faith as articulated by the Catholic Church can offer it.

This interview with Cardinal Müller therefore takes hope as its basic subject. It is a "report on hope", that is, an in-depth discussion of hope in relation to faith and love, truth and mercy; in relation to Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church; and in relation to the family and the demands of contemporary society.