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Sitaram
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Joined: 14 Sep 2005
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 Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 8:18 am Post subject: Clarification on Hans Kung |
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Another myspace friend has emailed me a clarification regarding the teaching
status of Hans Kung.
He continues to teach at the University of Tubingen. What the RC Church did
was revoke his privilige of claiming himself an officially recognized Roman
Catholic theologian, who speaks/teaches/writes with the authority of the
church's approval.
Apparently, Kung met with the new Pope Benedict (Ratzinger), with some
positive optimistic reactions.
I shall research this further in google.
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Sitaram
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| Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 8:21 am Post subject: |
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http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/...673-6131253?v=glance&n=283155
Here is an interesting excerpt about Pope Benedict
| Quote: |
Given the scathing reviews Allen's book has recieved by vehement critics,
one would get the impression that he has nothing at all positive to say
about Ratzinger. On the contrary, Allen believes Ratzinger "is not the
vengeful, power-obsessed old man who lurks like a bogyman in the
imaginations of the Catholic left". With regard to Ratzinger's thought, Allen
finds that his "arguments are more than ex post facto rationalizations for
exercises of authority" and speaks of "a deep, logical consistency to [his]
vision". Indeed, Allen is so impressed with Ratzinger that he exclaims "in
the unlikely event I ever had access to Ratzinger as a personal confesser,
I would not hesitate to open my heart to him, so convinced I am of the
clarity of his insight, his integrity, and his commitment to the priesthood"
-- sentiments which might be denounced as treasonous or dismissed as
insane by some on the Catholic left. (Picture a conservative saying the
same claim about Hans Kung).
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Sitaram
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| Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 8:25 am Post subject: Ratzinger agrees with Kung on need for Papal reform |
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http://www.traditioninaction.org/...vistDoc/A_004_Ratizinger_Kung.htm
Singing in this choir was Fr. Joseph Ratzinger, today's Pope Benedict XVI.
He took the same position of sabotaging Papal Infallibility.
| Quote: |
"A predominantly critical article should not, however, ignore the positive
side of Kung's book. This can be clearly deduced from all that we have
said before, when we affirmed that he opened for discussion, in an explicit
and unequivocal way, problems that must be reformulated. He
denounced obscurities in the historic and systematic structure of Catholic
theology, which in fact have persisted and until now have usually been
avoided and not confronted head-on" (O problema da Infalibilidade, Sao
Paulo: Ed. Loyola, 1974, p. 93 - original text highlighted at right).
Ratzinger goes on to support Kung's position versus the Theology of
Rome, of which today he is the top representative... He stresses:
"I want to emphasize again that I decidedly agree with Kung when he
makes a clear distinction between Roman theology (taught in the schools
of Rome) and the Catholic Faith. To free itself from the constraining
fetters of Roman Scholastic Theology represents a duty upon which, in my
humble opinion, the possibility of the survival of Catholicism seems to
depend" |
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Sitaram
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| Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 8:27 am Post subject: |
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http://www.highbeam.com/library/d...3AMode20b%3ADocG%3AResult&ao=
In a dramatic gesture of reconciliation, Pope Benedict XVI met Sept. 24
with his former colleague and longtime nemesis, Swiss Catholic theologian
Fr. Hans Kung, a fiery liberal who once compared then-Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger with the head of the KGB in his capacity as the Vatican's top
doctrinal enforcer.
| Quote: |
In 1979, Kung's license to teach Catholic theology was revoked by Pope
John Paul II, a decision in which Ratzinger played a role as a member of
the German bishops' conference. In the years since, Kung has been a
leading critic of many of the doctrinal positions espoused by Ratzinger,
and the investigatory procedures by which they are enforced.
During a four-hour session that stretched over dinner, the two men
essentially agreed to disagree on doctrinal matters. The pope offered
warm praise for Kung's efforts to foster dialogue among religions and with
the natural sciences, while Kung expressed support for the pope's
commitment along the same lines.
"It's clear that we have different positions," Kung told NCR in a telephone
interview from his home in Tubingen, Germany. "But the things we have
in common are more fundamental. We are both Christians, both priests in
service of the church, and we have great personal respect for one
another."
A Sept. 26 Statement from the Vatican did not say who had requested the
meeting, but said that it took place in a "friendly climate" and that
Benedict XVI offered special support for Kung's efforts to build a
Weltethos, or a moral framework based on values shared among religions
that can also be recognized by secular reason.
That statement, Kung told NCR; was prepared personally by the pope and
shown to Kung for approval prior to release.
Both parties agreed, according to the statement, that it did not make
sense to go into the "persistent doctrinal questions" between Kung and the
magisterium of the Catholic church.
"We should not have delusions," Kung said of what the meeting suggests
about the pontificate of Benedict XVI. "His stances on church policy are
not my own." Nevertheless, Kung said, he regards the meeting as a "sign
of hope for many in the church with the same vision as mine."
He described the session as "very joyful," with "no reproaches, no
polemics."
Kung said he did not request that Benedict XVI restore his license to teach
Catholic theology.
At one level, the meeting was a reunion of old friends who taught together
at the famous German theology faculty of Tubingen during the 1960s. In
fact, it was Kung who hired then-Fr. Joseph Ratzinger at Tubingen, luring
him away from a position in Munster. The two men served together as
periti, or theological experts, for the German bishops at the Second
Vatican Council (1962-65), where they were part of the broad progressive
majority. At Tubingen they had a standing weekly dinner appointment on
Thursday evenings to discuss a journal that they edited together.
Leading symbols
At another level, however, the Sept. 24 meeting represents an encounter
between the two leading symbols of the Catholic left and right in the
post-Vatican II period. Kung, known for his fierce public challenges to
papal infallibility and other doctrines, has long been a darling of Catholic
liberals, while over his 24 years as the Vatican's top doctrinal official
Ratzinger became the champion of the church's conservative wing.
The pope's decision to meet Kung, and the warm tone of their encounter,
will be widely seen as a gesture of reconciliation with the theological
community, and more broadly with liberal factions of Catholicism.
Kung told NCR that he wrote to the new pope to request a meeting
roughly a week after his April 19 election. He said he had repeatedly
requested a meeting with John Paul II, both before and after the 1979
decision to revoke his license as a Catholic theologian, without response.
Benedict responded quickly, Kung said, and a date was fixed for the
period when the pope would be at his summer residence at Castel
Gandolfo, something Kung said he had proposed so the setting would be
more relaxed.
In terms of substance, Kung said the two men found agreement on
matters of social policy, the relationship between faith and reason and
between science and religion, and the need for Christianity to collaborate
with other world religions in building what Kung has termed a "global
ethic."
"It's not that we agree on everything," Kung said. "But the pope has great
empathy for the problems of the world, and wanted to give a positive
sign."
Kung said the pope is obviously aware that the meeting would attract
attention, and consciously chose to use it as a gesture of "openness."
In some ways, it's difficult to know whether to be more surprised that
Benedict granted the meeting, or that Kung took it.
In 1997, another German Catholic theologian who has often been at odds
with Ratzinger, Johann Baptist Metz, celebrated his 70th birthday with a
symposium in Ahaus, Germany. Ratzinger was on the program, and the
two men spoke fondly of each other.
"Many of my colleagues had the impression that this [Ratzinger's
appearance] was a gesture of reconciliation toward the theological
community," Metz said.
Kung, however, derided Metz for appearing with Ratzinger without making
the case for internal church reform. "It is astonishing" and "a deep
scandal" that Metz "would offer the Grand Inquisitor a forum," Kung wrote
in an open letter published before the Ahaus symposium.
"He is the chief authority of the Inquisitorial office. It's like having a
general conversation about human rights with the head of the KGB," Kung
said in an NCR interview at the time.
"This is practically a capitulation to the Roman system, a kind of making
peace with Ratzinger, when the real task of political theology should be to
identify itself with the suffering people in our church. They are abusing
talk about God to avoid dealing with problems in the church."
It was all a bit much for Metz.
"Sometimes Kung conducts himself like a second magisterium. To tell you
the truth, one is enough, at least for me," Metz said.
This was different
Kung told NCR that his Sept. 24 encounter with the pope was different
from the earlier event.
"We presupposed different positions on a number of issues, from the
understanding of apostolic succession and other matters," he said.
Kung's 1997 reactions reflect the checkered history between Kung and
Ratzinger.
Kung was first contacted by the Vatican in April 1967 to answer charges
against his book Die Kirche, which focused especially on his understanding
of papal authority. At that time, Kung made several requests: for access
to his file ("I hardly need to mention that in all civilized states of the West
even criminals are guaranteed complete access to the dossiers that
pertain to them"); that any earlier decision made without his involvement
be set aside; for a written list of the problems with his book; for the
names of the experts who investigated his book; the ability to speak in
German during any formal meetings; and that his expenses to travel to
Rome be covered.
Copies of that letter went to Bishop Joseph Leiprecht of the diocese of
Rottenberg, in which Tubingen is located, and to Ratzinger, who was then
dean of the theological faculty.
In July 1970, Kung's real bombshell exploded over the Catholic world. His
book Infallible? An Inquiry challenged the 1870 declaration of papal
infallibility at Vatican I, questioning both its theological soundness and its
disastrous implications for ecumenism.
Shortly after Kung's book appeared, the German bishops' conference
began an investigation. In January 1971, Kung appeared before a hearing
of the doctrinal commission of the conference and its theological
advisers, including Ratzinger. On Feb. 8, 1971, the bishops' conference
issued a statement denouncing Kung's book.
Ratzinger contributed to a 1971 volume edited by Karl Rahner that
contained essays critical of Kung's book. Both Ratzinger and famed Jesuit
theologian Karl Rahner expressed strong reservations. Kung complained
that he had not been invited by Rahner to contribute an essay in his own
defense.
A classic or not
What many people believe to be Kung's masterpiece, On Being a Christian
appeared in 1974. In many quarters the book was instantly hailed as a
classic, but reaction within the circles of Catholic academic theology was
mixed. In 1976, a volume of essays in response to the book was
published in Germany, containing contributions from Ratzinger, Rahner
and others.
On Being a Christian expressed an "option for a label which in reality is an
empty formula," Ratzinger wrote. It moved theology "out of life and
death seriousness and into the questionable interests of the literary"; in it
Christian faith is "handed over to corruption at its very foundation"; the
church disappears "literally into the saying of nothing"; it contains "an
undisguised arrogance"; its theology is "rootless and ultimately
nonbinding."
Kung objected bitterly to Ratzinger's analysis in a May 22, 1976, article in
the Frankfurter Allgemeine, writing that it contained "numberless
misrepresentations, insinuations, condemnations."
In 1977, Kung appeared before a panel in Stuttgart to discuss the German
bishops' concerns about the book and his other work. One cardinal had
said he wished to have Ratzinger and Karl Lehmann, now himself the
cardinal of Mainz, with him as advisers. Kung objected to Ratzinger,
arguing that his essays about Infallible? and On Being A Christian lacked
objectivity.
In a November 1979 interview with the German Catholic news agency,
Ratzinger used the term missio canonica for the first time in connection to
Kung's case, saying that Kung cannot teach Catholic theology and hold the
views he does. The missio canonica is the license that a Catholic
theologian must hold in order to teach at a pontifically recognized
institution.
The German bishops held a news conference Dec. 18, 1979, announcing a
declaration from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that Kung
was no longer qualified to be a Catholic theologian.
In a sermon on Dec. 31, 1979, Ratzinger defended the action against
Kung in terms that would become familiar: "The Christian believer is a
simple person: Bishops should protect the faith of these little people
against the power of intellectuals."
During Ratzinger's almost quarter-century at the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, Kung remained one of his fiercest critics. In 1989,
for example, he was among the leading signatories to the "Cologne
Declaration," a statement from 163 theologians complaining of "Roman
centralism" in the church.
Yet the two men's respect for each other has remained intact over the
years. In his 1997 memoirs Milestones, Ratzinger wrote appreciatively of
Kung. In the immediate reaction to Ratzinger's election as Benedict XVI,
Kung to some extent returned the favor, calling the result "an enormous
disappointment," but adding, "The papacy is such a challenge that it can
change anyone.... Let us therefore give him a chance." |
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Sitaram
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Joined: 14 Sep 2005
Posts: 1079
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| Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 8:44 am Post subject: |
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4469809.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4469809.stm#kung
| Quote: |
Father Hans Kung of Germany, was stripped of his authority to teach at
Catholic universities for questioning church teachings
The election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as pope is an enormous
disappointment for all those who hoped for a reformist and pastoral pope.
But we must wait and see, for experience shows that the papacy in the
Catholic Church today is such a challenge that it can change anyone:
someone who went into the conclave a progressive cardinal can emerge
as a conservative pope (Montini - Paul VI). Someone who went into the
conclave a conservative cardinal can emerge as a progressive pope
(Roncalli - Johannes XXIII).
The name Benedict XVI leaves the possibility open for a more moderate
policy. Let us therefore give him a chance: as with a president of the US,
we should allow a new pope 100 days to learn.
At all events, he faces tremendous tasks which have been piling up for a
long time and which were not tackled by his predecessor: the active
advancement of ecumenical relations between the Christian churches; the
realisation of the collegiality of the pope with the bishops and the
decentralisation of church leadership, which is desired on all sides, in
favour of a greater autonomy of the local churches and the guarantee of
an equal footing for men and women in the church and the
implementation of the full participation of women at all levels of the
church.
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Sitaram
Site Admin
Joined: 14 Sep 2005
Posts: 1079
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| Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 8:49 am Post subject: |
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http://www.node707.com/archives/003738.shtml
| Quote: |
Karl Rahner, Hans Kung and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger all die on the
same day, and go to meet St. Peter to know their fate.
St. Peter approaches the three of them, and tells them that he will
interview each of them to discuss their views on various issues.
He then points at Rahner and says "Karl! In my office..." After 4 hours,
the door opens, and Rahner comes stumbling out of St. Peter's office. He
is highly distraught, and is mumbling things like "Oh God, that was the
hardest thing I've ever done! How could I have been so wrong! So
sorry...never knew..." He stumbles off into Heaven, a testament to the
mercy of Our God.
St. Peter follows him out, and sticks his finger in Kung's direction and
"Hans! You're next..." After 8 hours, the door opens, and Kung comes out,
barely able to stand. He is near collapse with weakness and a crushed
spirit. He , too, is mumbling things like "Oh God, that was the hardest
thing I've ever done! How could I have been so wrong! So sorry...never
knew..." He stumbles off into Heaven, a testament to the mercy of Our
God.
Lastly, St. Peter, emerging from his office, says to Cardinal Ratzinger,
"Joseph, your turn." TWELVE HOURS LATER, St. Peter stumbles out the
door, apparently exhausted, saying "Oh, How could I have made such
errors!?"
|
I gave this joke the ending which I heard, which I find funnier than the
ending at the above link. |
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Sitaram
Site Admin
Joined: 14 Sep 2005
Posts: 1079
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| Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 8:58 am Post subject: |
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http://www.we-are-church.org/it/attual/Allen.Kung.26.9.05.htm
excerpts:
| Quote: |
In a dramatic gesture of reconciliation, Pope Benedict XVI met Sept. 24
with his former colleague and longtime nemesis, Swiss Catholic theologian
Hans Küng, a fiery liberal who once compared then-Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger with the head of the KGB in his capacity as the Vatican's top
doctrinal enforcer.
In 1979, Küng's license to teach Catholic theology was revoked by Pope
John Paul II, a decision in which Ratzinger played a role as a member of
the German bishops' conference. In the years since, Küng has been a
leading critic of both many of the doctrinal positions espoused by
Ratzinger, and the investigatory procedures by which they are enforced.
During a four-hour session that stretched over dinner, the two men
essentially agreed to disagree on doctrinal matters. The pope offered
warm praise for Küng's efforts to foster dialogue among religions and with
the natural sciences, while Küng expressed support for the pope's
commitment along the same lines.
"It's clear that we have different positions," Küng told NCR in a telephone
interview from his home in Tübingen, Germany. "But the things we have
in common are more fundamental. We are both Christians, both priests in
service of the church, and we have great personal respect for one
another."
A Sept. 26 statement from the Vatican did not say who had requested the meeting, but said that it took place in a "friendly climate" and that
Benedict XVI offered special support for Küng's efforts to build a
Weltethos, or a moral framework based on values shared among religions
which can also be recognized by secular reason.
That statement, Küng told NCR, was prepared personally by the pope and
shown to Küng for approval prior to release.
Both parties agreed, according to the statement, that it did not make
sense to go into the "persistent doctrinal questions" between Küng and the
magisterium of the Catholic Church.
...
Ratzinger contributed to a 1971 volume edited by Karl Rahner that
contained essays critical of Küng's book. Both Ratzinger and and famed
Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner expressed strong reservations. Küng
complained that he had not been invited by Rahner to contribute an essay
in his own defense.
What many people believe to be Küng's masterpiece, On Being A
Christian appeared in 1974. In many quarters the book was instantly
hailed as a classic, but reaction within the circles of Catholic academic
theology was much more mixed. In 1976, a volume of essays in response
to the book was published in Germany, containing contributions from
Ratzinger, Rahner, and others.
On Being A Christian expressed an "option for a label which in reality is an
empty formula," Ratzinger wrote. It moved theology "out of life and
death seriousness and into the questionable interests of the literary"; in it
Christian faith is "handed over to corruption at its very foundation"; the
church disappears "literally into the saying of nothing"; it contains "an
undisguised arrogance"; its theology is "rootless and ultimately
nonbinding"; Küng was "going it alone, alone with oneself and modern
reasonableness"; the book expressed "a school certitude, a party
certitude, not a certitude for which one can live and die, a certitude for
comfortable times in which the ultimate is not demanded"; its theology
"lands ultimately in the abstruse," and "leads nowhere."
Küng objected bitterly to Ratzinger's analysis in a May 22, 1976, article in
the Frankfurter Allgemeine, writing that it contained "numberless
misrepresentations, insinuations, condemnations." Overall, Küng referred
to the volume of essays as "an outright shot in the back."
In 1977, Küng appeared before a panel in Stuttgart to discuss the German
bishops' concerns about the book and his other work. One cardinal had
said he wished to have Ratzinger and Karl Lehmann, now himself the
cardinal of Mainz, with him as advisors. Küng objected to Ratzinger,
arguing that his essays about Infallible? and On Being A Christian lacked
objectivity.
....
During Ratzinger's almost quarter-century at the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, Küng remained one of his fiercest critics. In 1989,
for example, he was among the leading signatories to the "Cologne
Declaration," a statement from 163 theologians complaining of "Roman
centralism" in the church.
Yet the two men's respect for one another has remained intact over the
years.
In his 1997 memoirs Milestones, Ratzinger wrote appreciatively of Küng.
In the immediate reaction to Ratzinger's election as Benedict XVI, Küng to
some extent returned the favor, calling the result "an enormous
disappointment," but adding, "The papacy is such a challenge that it can
change anyone.... Let us therefore give him a chance."
The Sept. 26 Vatican statement made no mention of any discussion about
lifting the ban on Küng's right to teach theology. After the ban, Küng
shifted his attention to his world ethic project, becoming a widely
recognized international figure in efforts to promote dialogue among world
religions, as well between faith and the secular world.
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Sitaram
Site Admin
Joined: 14 Sep 2005
Posts: 1079
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| Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 9:11 am Post subject: |
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http://www.jknirp.com/bentheo.htm
Theologians reflect on Pope Benedict XVI's theology
excerpts:
| Quote: |
As a theologian the newly elected Pope Benedict XVI has been described
as Augustinian rather than Thomist and more "ressourcement" than
"aggiornamento."
...
The French term "ressourcement," meaning a return to the sources, and
the Italian term "aggiornamento," updating or modernizing, were two
ways of speaking about the task of church reform and renewal at the
Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. In the years following the council,
they began to be seen as distinct terms identifying different views of the
council.
...
St. Augustine of Hippo, one of the greatest theologians of the ancient
church, is noted for his strong emphasis on the corruption of human
nature by sin and the absolute necessity of grace for salvation.
St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest medieval theologians, did not
deny sin or the need for grace, but he placed greater emphasis on the
goodness of nature, including human nature.
For an Augustinian theologian like the new pope, "there's a certain
pessimism about what a human being can do on his own without God's
grace," said Dennis Doyle, a professor of religious studies at the
University of Dayton in Ohio. "I think that does color his approach, and it
mixes in very well with his strong anti-Marxism, which is also at the same
time an anti-utopianism, the idea that human beings should not try to
create a perfect world on their own."
...
In Cardinal Ratzinger's homily to the other cardinals just before entering
the conclave where he was elected pope, that strong Augustinian bent
came through clearly as he warned against "a dictatorship of relativism,"
"a trivialization of evil" and alien ideologies assailing the church, "from
Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical
individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from
agnosticism to syncretism."
...
In his 2000 biography, "Cardinal Ratzinger," John L. Allen reports that as
a theology professor at Tubingen in 1968, Father Ratzinger was shocked
"that the theology faculties of Tubingen became the 'real ideological
center' of the movement toward Marxism."
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