Catholic theologian wants to unseat the Pope
Guardian, UK - One of the world's most prominent Catholic theologians has called for a revolution from below to unseat the pope and force radical reform at the Vatican.Hans Küng is appealing to priests and churchgoers to confront the Catholic hierarchy, which he says is corrupt, lacking credibility and apathetic to the real concerns of the church's members.
In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Küng, who had close contact with the pope when the two worked together as young theologians, described the church as an "authoritarian system" with parallels to Germany's Nazi dictatorship.
"The unconditional obedience demanded of bishops who swear their allegiance to the pope when they make their holy oath is almost as extreme as that of the German generals who were forced to swear an oath of allegiance to Hitler," he said.
The Vatican made a point of crushing any form of clerical dissent, he added. "The rules for choosing bishops are so rigid that as soon as candidates emerge who, say, stand up for the pill, or for the ordination of women, they are struck off the list." The result was a church of "yes men", almost all of whom unquestioningly toed the line.
"The only way for reform is from the bottom up," said Küng, 84, who is a priest. "The priests and others in positions of responsibility need to stop being so subservient, to organise themselves and say that there are certain things that they simply will not put up with anymore."
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In the late 1960s, he
became the first major Roman Catholic theologian since the late 19th century Old Catholic
Church schism to publicly reject the doctrine of papal
infallibility, in particular in his book Infallible? An Inquiry
(1971). Consequently, on December 18, 1979, he was stripped of his missio
canonica, his licence to teach as a Roman Catholic theologian, but carried
on teaching as a tenured professor of ecumenical theology at the University of Tübingen until his
retirement (Emeritierung) in 1996. To this day he remains a persistent
critic of papal
infallibility, which he claims is man-made (and thus reversible) rather than
instituted by God. He was not excommunicated
ferendae sententiae....
In March 1991, he gave a
talk titled "No Peace Among Nations until Peace Among the Religions" at UCSD's Price Center. He visited the
nearby Beth El synagogue and spoke there on modern German-Jewish relations.[11]
In 1998, he published Dying with Dignity, co-written with Walter Jens,
in which he affirms acceptance of euthanasia from a Christian viewpoint.
In 2005, Küng published
a critical article in Italy and Germany on The failures of Pope Wojtyla.
Küng argued that the world had expected a period of conversion, reform, and
dialogue; but instead politically John Paul II offered a restoration of the
pre-Vatican II status quo—thus blocking reform and inter-church dialogue and
reasserting the absolute dominion of Rome.
This Papacy has repeatedly declared its fidelity to Vatican II, in order to then betray it for reasons of political expediency. Council terms such as modernization, dialogue, and ecumenicalism have been replaced by emphasis on restoration, mastery, and obedience.
The criteria for the nomination of Bishops is not at all in the spirit of the Gospel... Pastoral politics has allowed the moral and intellectual level of the episcopate to slip to dangerous levels. A mediocre, rigid, and more conservative episcopate will be the lasting legacy of this papacy.
On September 26, 2005,
he had a friendly discussion about Catholic theology over dinner with Pope Benedict XVI,
surprising some observers.[12]
Nevertheless, in a 2009
interview with Le Monde, Küng deeply criticised the lifting of the
excommunications on the bishops of the Society of
Saint Pius X. At the same time, he made criticisms of the Pope's theology,
saying it remained the same as that of the council of Nicea held in 325. The
interview drew a rebuke from Cardinal Angelo Sodano.[13]
Based on Studium
Generale lectures at Tübingen University, his latest publication, Der
Anfang aller Dinge (The beginning of all things), discusses the
relationship between science and religion. In an analysis
spanning from quantum physics to neuroscience, he comments on the current debate
about evolution in the United
States, dismissing those opposed to the teaching of evolution as "naive [and]
un-enlightened."
In his recent book Was ich glaube (Piper Verlag, 2010), he describes
his own personal relationship with nature, how he learned to observe correctly,
drawing strength from God’s creation without falling victim to a false and
fanatic love of nature.
In April 2010, he
published in several newspapers an open letter[14] to all Catholic
bishops. In the letter he criticized Pope Benedict's handling of liturgical,
collegial and inter-religious issues and also the sexual abuse scandals that
have engulfed the Catholic Church. In the letter, he called on bishops to
consider six proposals, ranging from speaking up and working on regional
solutions to calling for another Vatican council.
[bold and underlining added- DW]
added oct 10, 2012:
Neccessary Topic for Kung and Others to Address:
http://continuingcounterreformation.blogspot.com/2011/06/cardinal-wisemanthe-decisive-battle.html
Continuing Counter Reformation - Mieczyslaw Ledochowski
http://continuingcounterreformation.blogspot.com/search/label/Mieczyslaw%20Ledochowski
added oct 10, 2012:
Neccessary Topic for Kung and Others to Address:
http://continuingcounterreformation.blogspot.com/2011/06/cardinal-wisemanthe-decisive-battle.html
Continuing Counter Reformation - Mieczyslaw Ledochowski
http://continuingcounterreformation.blogspot.com/search/label/Mieczyslaw%20Ledochowski
