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The influential and controversial Swiss theologian Hans Küng died Tuesday at the age of 93. The German Catholic Church’s official website said that Küng died on the afternoon of April 6 at his home in Tübingen, southwest Germany. Küng served as a theological adviser at the Second Vatican Council but repeatedly clashed with Rome in the years that followed. The tensions culminated in a 1979 declaration by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) that Küng had “departed from the integral truth of Catholic faith, and therefore he can no longer be considered a Catholic theologian nor function...

Hans Küng, Catholic priest and Swiss theologian, has taken great pains to end the 16th-century schism between Catholics and Protestants since he wrote his doctoral dissertation on "Justification. The Teaching of Karl Barth and a Catholic Reflection" in 1957. He continues that work today with the release of the statement below, which is being published simultaneously by National Catholic Reporter and The Tablet. Küng has collected all his writings on the Justification Doctrine in the first volume of his collected works, which is being published by the German publishing house Herder. Sixty years ago, Küng's work led to the consensus...

George Orwell Margaret Sanger Hilary Clinton Very prominent "progressive " Catholic theologian Hans Kung Editor's Note: The terms "progressive" and "progressivism" are being widely used in the secular and religious worlds. Most people hearing these words have no idea of their manipulative context and what many who use them actually intend them to mean. "Progressivism" has a political/historical background that must be understood by pro-life, pro-family people and people of faith in order to prevent them from falling prey to its dangerous agendas. We asked George Neumayr to write this instructive piece for the benefit of all LifeSiteNews readers. After...

Preface for the English Edition The Arab Spring has shaken a whole series of autocratic regimes. With the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the election of Pope Francis, might something like this be possible in the Catholic Church as well – a ‘Vatican Spring’? Of course, the system of the Roman Catholic Church is quite different from those prevailing in Tunisia and Egypt, to say nothing of the absolute monarchies like Saudi Arabia. In all these countries, the reforms that have taken place until now are often no more than minor concessions, and even these are often threatened by...

Hans Küng urges confrontation from the grassroots to unseat pope and force radical reform at VaticanOne 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...

Pope should be deposed if he accepts the SSPX back

BERLIN German theologian Hans Kueng is urging bishops to disobey the pope and push for reforms in the Roman Catholic Church. The 82-year-old former colleague and friend of Pope Benedict XVI says the church is in its deepest crisis since the Protestant Reformation after recent revelations of sexual abuse by clergy and the ensuing erosion of trust. Kueng, a veteran of the Second Vatican Council, says in an editorial in daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung that bishops should call for a new synod to discuss reforms. He says it is legitimate for bishops to pressure Roman authorities if the pope blocks their...

German theologian Hans Kueng has urged bishops to disobey the pope and push for reforms in the Roman Catholic Church. The 82-year-old former colleague and friend of Pope Benedict XVI says the church is in its deepest crisis since the Protestant Reformation after recent revelations of sexual abuse by clergy and the ensuing erosion of trust. Mr Kueng, a veteran of the Second Vatican Council, said in an editorial in the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung that bishops should call for a new synod to discuss reforms. He said it is legitimate for bishops to pressure Roman authorities if the pope...

Man says wife can beat him each week Li Xinran A. MAN with a violent wife has taken the unusual step of signing an agreement with her that allows his spouse to beat him once a week. Zhang, 32, said his wife Chen, who is skilled in martial arts, frequently beats him during disputes over petty things such as who will wash the dishes, Chongqing Evening News reported yesterday. Both Zhang, a photographer, and Chen want the marriage to continue and have sought a way to end her violent tirades. "I don't want to beat him very often, but I...

ROME (CNS) -- Dissident theologian Father Hans Kung criticized Pope Benedict XVI for his recent opening to discontented Anglicans, charging the pope was "fishing" for the most conservative Christians to the detriment of the larger church. Father Kung said the invitation to traditionalist Anglicans to join the Roman Catholic Church went against years of ecumenical work on the part of both churches, calling it instead "a nonecumenical piracy of priests." The pope's basic message is: "Traditionalists of all churches, unite under the dome of St. Peter's!" Father Kung wrote in an editorial Oct. 28 in the Rome daily La Repubblica....

MISSION The CENTER FOR GLOBAL ETHICS coordinates the work of thinkers, scholars and activists from around the world, who are working to define, implement and promote policies of responsible global citizenship. As profoundly interconnected members of a global community, we recognize the need to develop and advance the acceptance of a viable and sustainable Global Ethic. Global Ethic Foundation Prof. Dr. Hans Küng, President Declaration of a Global Ethic Hans Küng Declaration of a Global Ethic Leonard Swidler "Ethics Statements of Human Activities and Professions," particularly on an international level, e.g., business, labor, law "Ecological Ethics," especially though not...

The renowned Swiss theologian, Hans Küng, is to receive an award by the Japanese Niwano Peace Foundation. The laureate said he would use the prize, which is worth SFr224,000 ($192,275), for his Global Ethic Foundation. The award ceremony is to take place in Tokyo on May 11. The panel said the understanding and insight of the Catholic theologian were indispensable for peace in the world, notably in the Middle East, Iraq and Sri Lanka. "Together with his contributions to interfaith dialogue and cooperation, Dr Küng’s advocacy of a global ethic as a way of realising peace has won him recognition...

NEWS: August 19, 2003 Bird’s Eye View of the News Atila Sinke Guimarães RATZINGER, A TOOTHLESS LION - For the last 20 years Sr. Jeannine Gramick, SSND, and Fr. Robert Nugent, SDS, have been two leading American religious stars in the Catholic “ministry” with gays and lesbians. Their innovative progressivist positions on the topic have generated a lot of publicity, so I don’t need to remind my reader who they are. On July 13, 1999 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued to both Sr. Gramick and Fr. Nugent a formal condemnation along with a permanent prohibition to...

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...

The media is rife with stories about the meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and famed Catholic dissident Hans Küng. There is also much heated debate within Catholic circles over what the (according to Küng) 4-hour meeting, signified.Many orthodox Catholics are chalking the meeting up to the fact that Küng and Pope Benedict are old friends turned enemies and now reacquainted in their old age.  So-called 'liberal' or dissident Catholics are reading into the meeting a 'new openness' to dissident views.  Küng himself is musing about the meeting as a sign of new "openness" on the part of Pope Benedict.While Küng...

Pope Benedict XVI and German theologian Father Hans Kung, who have known each other for almost 50 years, met Sept. 24 in Castel Gandolfo in what the Vatican described as a "friendly" encounter. Joaquin Navarro-Valls, Vatican spokesman, said Sept. 26 that the pope and Father Kung "agreed that in the space of this meeting it made no sense to enter into an argument about the doctrinal questions remaining between Hans Kung and the magisterium of the church." Father Kung served as a theological expert at the Second Vatican Council, but in 1979 the Vatican withdrew permission for him to teach...

In 1956 a diminutive and humble Catholic bishop was forcefully escorted by an armed guard to a stage at a dog-racing stadium in Shanghai, China. Despite his five-foot stature and poor health after months of imprisonment, Bishop Ignatius Kung was considered a very dangerous man by the Chinese Communist Party. In September of the previous year Bishop Kung and two hundred priests in Shanghai were arrested and imprisoned for refusing to renounce their allegiance to the Vatican and transfer their loyalties to the state-sanctioned “Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association” (CPA), an Orwellian institution which is often referred to as the...