The Pope attacks Hans Küng, his church'sprickliest theologian
The dramatic news broke in an offhand manner. After a routine conference at the Vatican last Tuesday, Press Officer Romeo Panciroli stood to read what was expected to be some minor announcement. Instead, he intoned that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith "is constrained to declare that Professor Hans Kung, in his writings, has departed from the integral truth of Roman Catholic faith, and therefore he can no longer be considered a Catholic theologian or function as such in a teaching role."
In Vatican terms that meant that Küng, 51, must stop teaching Catholic theology at West Germany's University of Tubingen. It is the harshest action against any important scholar since the era before the liberalizing breezes of the Second Vatican Council, and one that was explicitly endorsed by Pope John Paul II. During the Vatican Council Küng was an adviser to the West German hierarchy. His moderate reformist concepts won the admiration of, among others, the Polish bishop who became John Paul II. But since the council, Kung has more and more acted as a kind of theological matador, waving red flags in front of the hierarchy, questioning doctrines central to the Catholic faith and issuing personal criticisms of Popes.
The disciplining of Küng for "contempt" of church doctrinal authority came only three days after the Vatican had questioned another top theologian, Edward Schillebeeckx of The Netherlands. Panciroli said the juxtaposition of the two events was coincidental, but that sidestepped the main point. As one Vatican official put it privately, "John Paul II is cracking down, and he is picking the big ones first." To other observers in Rome, the only question is: Who will be next?
John Paul is seeking to establish the certainty of faith that in the eyes of many Catholics has been confused and endangered by all the liberal theological theorizing since Vatican II. In the effort to define clearly what is and is not Catholic doctrine, the isolation of Kung is particularly important because he has publicly questioned or denied outright the creed that Christ is eternally "one in substance" with God the Father, the belief that the church is based on an apostolic succession that goes back to St. Peter and the sacrificial nature of the Mass. Küng's doubts are influential, as several of his books have become bestsellers.