Sacred Rule according to Ratzinger

"First, to the word hierarchy. The correct translation of this term is probably not "sacred rule" but "sacred origin." The word archē can mean both things, origin and rule...the likelier meaning is "sacred origin." In other words, it communicates itself in virtue of an origin, and the power of this origin, which is sacred, is, as it were, the ever-new beginning of every generation in the church. It doesn't live by the mere continuum of generations but by the presence of the ever-new source itself, which communicates itself unceasingly through the sacraments...the priesthood has to be a conduit and a making present of a beginning and has to make itself available for this task. When priesthood, episcopacy, and papacy are understood essentially in terms of rule, then things are truly wrong and distorted."

The Essential Pope Benedict XVI: His Central Writings and Speeches (2007) by John F. Thornton and Susan B. Varenne (p.117) . Excerpt from The Canon of Criticism, Peter Seewald Interviews Joseph Ratzinger (1996).