When Hans Kung arrived last week for his first lecture after the University of Tübingen's holiday break, the classroom was jammed with 300 students and onlookers. Another 300 next door listened in via loudspeaker. The Vatican may have declared him unfit to be considered a Roman Catholic theologian, but Father Kung was back at his Tübingen lectern, at which he has taught since 1960 and now occupies as bestselling author, West German celebrity and a focus of Catholic theological rebellion.
Kung scrapped his scheduled lecture on the Apostles' Creed and instead read a long statement titled "Why I Remain a Catholic," and answered questions. He emphasized again his rejection of the doctrinal infallibility of the Pope and the bishops. "I have no intention of giving up my duties as a priest and theologian, or of leaving the church," he stated. "To teach absolute obedience to the leader is a disservice to the younger generation."
The West German hierarchy did not agree. In a "declaration" to be read from every pulpit in the nation this week, it said: "Not even the Pope himself is free from error. But if the bishops and the Pope state that something is God-revealed, then the help of the Holy Spirit prevents them from error. This is what Professor Kung denies, and it is a fundamental tenet of the faith."
After the Vatican acted against Kung last month, 2,000 demonstrators rallied in Lucerne, Switzerland, waving such banners as: AFTER THE VATICAN COUNCIL - THE ICE AGE. In Rottenburg, West Germany, within 48 hours, 4,000 people signed a petition from an ad hoc protest committee. Last week worshipers emerged from Mass at the cathedral in Cologne to find 37 protesting priests and seminarians hanging Kung in effigy and burning his books: the pantomime was intended to satirize the church's decision. Otherwise, the Kung case has so far produced joint protests from scholars but little of the general uproar that attended, say, Pope Paul's birth control encyclical. In West Germany, Kung enjoys wide, but not overwhelming, backing among younger priests and the laity. In Rome, he is viewed more as a popularizer than a serious theologian.
The Vatican acted under terms of its concordat with Germany, a holdover from the era of the diplomat Popes, under which professors of Roman Catholic theology at state institutions must have a missio canonica (canonical mission to teach) from the local bishop. In Kung's case, this is Bishop Georg Moser of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. Austria is the only other nation where a concordat gives bishops so much power over theologians at secular campuses. Elsewhere, except for schools under direct church control, the Vatican has only the power to inform Catholics that a professor's views are not sanctioned.