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Pope Benedict attacked by Catholic Church’s most senior theologians [Catholic Caucus]
Telegraph ^ | May 22, 2008 | Malcolm Moore

Posted on 05/23/2008 6:04:59 AM PDT by NYer

One of the Catholic Church’s most senior theologians, and former mentor to Pope Benedict XVI, has launched a stinging attack on the Vatican.

Father Hans Küng, 80, a Swiss priest and professor at Tübingen university said it was a “tragedy” for the Catholic Church that Rome had failed to follow the path of liberalisation set out by the Vatican II council in 1965.

In his autobiography, My Fight for Freedom, Fr Küng said he was responsible for Benedict XVI’s appointment as a professor at Tübingen 1966 when he was dean of the Catholic theology faculty. Unusually, Father Küng put forward no other candidates for the post.

“I called only the strongest colleague, not any mediocre ones. Mediocre professors appoint mediocre colleagues; strong professors call strong colleagues,” he said, adding that their three-year relationship had been fruitful.

However, Fr Küng fell out with the Vatican and his former colleague in 1979 when he was stripped of the right to teach theology by Rome after criticising the doctrine of papal infallibility.

The bitter row continued after Benedict’s election as pope in 2005, when Fr Küng said he was “bitterly disappointed”. However, he was unexpectedly called to dinner with the pope shortly afterwards and the two men appeared to have reconciled, with Fr Küng publicly stating his hope in the new regime.

In an interview with La Repubblica, however, he said: “Rome continues to block every sort of renewal, and is blocking any ecumenical unification with the protestant and orthodox churches. This pope has made serious mistakes.”

He softened his attack, however, by adding that he hoped Benedict would carry out “other courageous acts” to reverse the situation.


TOPICS: Apologetics
KEYWORDS: b16; benedictxvi; catholic; hanskung; kung; pope; vatican
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1 posted on 05/23/2008 6:06:16 AM PDT by NYer
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To: Salvation; narses; SMEDLEYBUTLER; redhead; Notwithstanding; nickcarraway; Romulus; ...

Progressive ping!


2 posted on 05/23/2008 6:07:41 AM PDT by NYer (John 6:51-58)
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This is a bad thing? He is not open to some new ideas? My father warned me when I started college- Don’t keep your mind too open, someone might just fill it with something.


3 posted on 05/23/2008 6:08:06 AM PDT by goodwithagun (My gun has killed less people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: NYer

““Rome continues to block every sort of renewal, and is blocking any ecumenical unification with the protestant and orthodox churches.”

I can’t speak to any discussions with Protestants, but this comment is just hogwash when it comes to Orthodoxy.


4 posted on 05/23/2008 6:34:37 AM PDT by Kolokotronis (Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated)
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To: NYer

““Rome continues to block every sort of renewal, and is blocking any ecumenical unification with the protestant and orthodox churches.”

I can’t speak to any discussions with Protestants, but this comment is just hogwash when it comes to Orthodoxy.


5 posted on 05/23/2008 6:35:04 AM PDT by Kolokotronis (Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated)
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To: NYer

Senior? That means him and his ilk will be dying off soon.

There’s always a good side to everything.


6 posted on 05/23/2008 6:36:33 AM PDT by NeoCaveman (El Conservo Tribe, tribal name "Avoids Fort Marcy Park". We are so screwed.)
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To: NYer
This is a funny article--typical of a British (anti-Papist) newspaper. A dissident theologian of the withered up old guard attacks the Pope and it's news? What's next? Maybe this...

[Breaking] Sun Rises in East.
7 posted on 05/23/2008 6:40:17 AM PDT by Antoninus (Siblings are the greatest gift parents give their children.)
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To: NYer

Kung’s mad because he realizes that BXVI is the future - and Kung was just a passing product of the Zeitgeist, and now his time is done. Everything about him and his type of “theology” looks so dated...it reeks of Nehru jackets and go-go boots...


8 posted on 05/23/2008 6:41:39 AM PDT by livius
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To: NYer
TheologianS?????

The article only mentions ONE - the usual suspect, Hans Küng, who is still sore about being stripped of his privileges for promoting heresy.

The Telegraph just wishes that it were multiple "senior theologians".

The hatred of the news media for the Church is so dull and predictable! Too bad some folks actually believe them.

9 posted on 05/23/2008 6:43:43 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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To: NYer
What a ridiculous and misleading headline! It sounds as if open war has broken out in the Church and a group of prominent theologians has mutinied.

It's just 'effin' Kung.......... again!

But why am I not surprised? It's the Daily Torygraph, the mouthpiece for Britain's anti-Catholic establishment.

10 posted on 05/23/2008 6:50:35 AM PDT by marshmallow (An infallible Bible is useless without an infallible interpreter)
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To: NYer

Kung is a Heretic that should have been excommunicated long ago.


11 posted on 05/23/2008 7:01:40 AM PDT by docman57 (Retired but still on Duty)
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To: NYer

I recall a tale from Vatican II in which Kung and Schillebeecx boasted that this time the reformers would achieve their revolution within the Church as opposed to outside the Church as had their 16th century predecessors. Sorry Hans! You’re just another heretic! Things haven’t worked out as planned!


12 posted on 05/23/2008 7:03:18 AM PDT by Ozone34
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To: NYer
Hans Kung is not a Catholic theologian.
13 posted on 05/23/2008 7:07:43 AM PDT by wideawake (Why is it that those who call themselves Constitutionalists know the least about the Constitution?)
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To: AnAmericanMother
The Telegraph just wishes that it were multiple "senior theologians".

I'm sure that if they were able to contact the 93 year old Edward Schillebeeckx he would have echoed Kung's comments.

14 posted on 05/23/2008 7:11:17 AM PDT by wideawake (Why is it that those who call themselves Constitutionalists know the least about the Constitution?)
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To: wideawake

“one of the most senior” just means one of the oldest.


15 posted on 05/23/2008 7:12:09 AM PDT by tdunbar
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To: wideawake

Hasn’t been since 1979.


16 posted on 05/23/2008 7:13:45 AM PDT by stop_fascism
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To: wideawake

What’s he up to these days?


17 posted on 05/23/2008 7:21:41 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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To: AnAmericanMother

He is the head of an academic thinktank at the University of Tuebingen called the Global Ethics Foundation - basically a talkshop for multicultural approaches to moral theology.


18 posted on 05/23/2008 7:26:16 AM PDT by wideawake (Why is it that those who call themselves Constitutionalists know the least about the Constitution?)
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To: Ozone34; wideawake; livius
My generation of young people who are too young to really be considered the "JPII Generation" look at Kung and Schillebeeckx (if we even know who they are) as relics of some bygone era, don't see what all their fuss is about, and keep moving. And we take with great suspicion anyone who starts quoting them with any frequency.

I was in NYC for Pope Benedict's visit; despite his age, he looked quite vibrant. He energized the young people, who absorbed his message, and we energized him. The progressive revolution is stillborn. He is the future, and everyone knows it.

19 posted on 05/23/2008 7:27:09 AM PDT by GCC Catholic (Sour grapes make terrible whine.)
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To: wideawake
So they all just talk, and as Kipling said,

He had suffered from the disease of the century since his early youth, and before he was thirty he was heavily marked with it. He and a few friends had rearranged Heaven very comfortably, but the reorganisation of Earth, which they called Society, was even greater fun. It demanded Work in the shape of many taxi-rides daily; hours of brilliant talk with brilliant talkers; some sparkling correspondence; a few silences (but on the understanding that their own turn should come soon) while other people expounded philosophies; and a fair number of picture-galleries, tea-fights, concerts, theatres, music-halls, and cinema shows; the whole trimmed with lovemaking to women whose hair smelt of cigarette-smoke. Such strong days sent Frankwell Midmore back to his flat assured that he and his friends had helped the World a step nearer the Truth, the Dawn, and the New Order.

Minus the women, I suppose.

20 posted on 05/23/2008 7:29:38 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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