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ENCUENTRO DE HANS KÜNG Y BENEDICTO XVI
26-9-2005
Antonio Duato
Moderador y
editor de ATRIO
La noticia ha saltado esta tarde. Los dos viejos amigos, tanto
tiempo enfrentados, se han encontrado el sábado pasado en un
encuentro relajado, no polémico, para hablar sobre todo del proyecto
de "ética global" (Küng es el presidente y alma de la
Fundación
Weltethos,
que cada vez está teniendo más influencia mundial) que promueve Küng y de temas de fe, ciencia y
cultura. El encuentro no aparece en el Boletín del VIS
(Servicio de Información de Vaticano)
que da cuenta de las audiencias del sábado . Por cierto en ese Boletín sí que aparace
que el mismo sábado el papa recibió al Cardenal Martini. Noticias
esperanzadoras todas de distensión...
Hans Küng estaba silencioso después de la elección de Ratzinger,
cumpliendo la temporada de silencio que había prometido. Ahora este
encuentro resulta muy significativo, sobre todo por lo duro que fue
Küng con Metz cuando este invitó en 1997 para su cumpleańos al
prefecto de la Congregación de la Fe (ver más abajo el artículo de
Allen en Nathional Catholic Reporter de hoy, que hace un buen
resumen de toda la historia de la relación Küng-Ratzinger).
Precisamente Esta pareja de teólogos que se encontraron el sábado
están en la lista de los cien pensadores con más influencia en el
mundo que publica la revista
Foreing Policy.
Religión Digital da cuenta del comentario hecho por Küng
tras la reunión. Hace referencia a las declaraciones del
Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Quedamos a la espera de más
información, para ofrecerla en ATRIO.
Esperamos que la acogida a su viejo amigo y la posible
rehabilitación de su persona como teólogo católico represente un
signo de apertura del Papa, que extiende sus brazos y proyectos
pastorales más allá de los cauces estratégicos que le marcan los
restauradores que le eligieron.
P.S.: Comunicado de la Oficina de Prensa del Vaticano:
VIS del 27-9-2005.
BENEDICTO XVI SE ENTREVISTA CON HANS KUNG
CIUDAD DEL VATICANO, 27 SEP 2005 (VIS).-El
director de la Oficina de Prensa de la Santa Sede, Joaquín
Navarro-Valls, realizó ayer por la tarde la siguiente
declaración: "El sábado 24 de septiembre de 2005 tuvo
lugar un coloquio de Su Santidad el Papa Benedicto XVI con el
profesor Hans Küng (Tubinga). El encuentro se desarrolló en un
clima amistoso. Ambos estaban de acuerdo en que no tenía
sentido entrar, en el marco del encuentro, en una discusión
sobre las divergencias doctrinales persistentes entre Hans
Küng y el Magisterio de la Iglesia Católica. "El coloquio se concentró, por tanto, en dos
temas que tienen particular interés para el trabajo reciente
de Hans Küng: la cuestión de la ética mundial ("Weltethos") y
el diálogo de la razón de las ciencias naturales con la razón
de la fe cristiana. El profesor Küng subrayó que su proyecto
de ética mundial no es ni mucho menos una construcción
intelectual abstracta, sino que pone de manifiesto los valores
morales sobre los que convergen las grandes religiones del
mundo, a pesar de todas las diferencias, y que pueden
percibirse como criterios válidos -a causa de su convincente
carácter razonable- por la razón secular. "El Papa apreció el esfuerzo del profesor
Küng para contribuir a un renovado reconocimiento de los
valores morales esenciales de la humanidad a través del
diálogo de las religiones y en el encuentro con la razón
secular. Subrayó que el compromiso por una renovada conciencia
de los valores fundamentales de la vida humana es también un
objetivo importante de su pontificado. "Al mismo tiempo, el Papa reafirmó su
acuerdo sobre el intento del profesor Küng de reavivar el
diálogo entre fe y ciencias naturales y de hacer valer, en
relación con el pensamiento científico, la sensatez y la
necesidad de la cuestión sobre Dios ("Gottesfrage"). Por su
parte, el profesor Küng elogió los esfuerzos del Papa por
favorecer el diálogo entre las religiones y también el
encuentro con los diferentes grupos sociales del mundo
moderno".
Hans Küng and Pope Benedict,
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. While the two men 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. 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. 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. At one level, the meeting was a reunion of old
friends who taught together at the famous German
theology faculty of Tübingen during the 1960s. In fact,
it was Küng who hired then-Fr. Joseph Ratzinger at
Tübingen, luring him away from a position at the
University of Münster; 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
Tübingen they had a standing weekly dinner appointment
on Thursday evenings to discuss a journal that they
edited together. At the beginning of Vatican II, the then-Cardinal of
Milan, Giovanni Battista Montini, who would bring the
council to a close as Pope Paul VI, predicted that two
figures who came to prominence in those years would be
heard from in the Catholic world -- Küng and Ratzinger.
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. Küng, 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 Küng, 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. In some ways, it's difficult to know whether to be
more surprised that Benedict granted the meeting, or
that Küng took it. Ratzinger-Metz meeting derided "Many of my colleagues had the impression that this [Ratzinger's
appearance] was a gesture of reconciliation toward the
theological community," Metz said. Küng, 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," Küng
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," Küng 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 Küng conducts himself like a second
magisterium. To tell you the truth, one is enough, at
least for me," Metz said, adding that he was "very hurt,
very disappointed, very angry" about Küng's comments.
Küng was unrepentant. "This event was simply a very nice occasion to show
Ratzinger as a smiling Inquisitor who can talk about
highly theological subjects in a serene manner," he said.
"He thought everybody would be impressed." Those reactions reflect the checkered history between
Küng and Ratzinger. There is no figure anywhere in the world more
associated with Vatican II, both its promise and its
perils, than the 77-year-old Swiss theologian. His book
The Council, Reform and Reunion, was widely
perceived as the unofficial template for Vatican II. "Never
again would an individual theologian have such influence,"
wrote the late Vatican expert Peter Hebblethwaite. In
the years since, Küng has become the public face of
liberal Catholicism, advocating reform inside the church
and ecumenical and inter-faith progress outside. Küng 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, Küng 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 (otherwise, he said, they
could hold the meeting in Tübingen; "my house would be
at your disposal"). Carbon copies of that letter went to Bishop Joseph
Leiprecht of the diocese of Rottenberg, in which
Tübingen is located, and to Ratzinger, who was then dean
of the theological faculty. In July 1970, Küng's real bombshell exploded over the
Catholic world. His book Infallible? An Inquiry
seemed to challenge the 1870 declaration of papal
infallibility at Vatican I, questioning both its
theological soundness and its disastrous implications
for ecumenism. Shortly after Küng's book appeared, the German
bishops' conference began an investigation. In January
1971, Küng appeared before a hearing of the doctrinal
commission of the conference and their theological
advisors, including Ratzinger. On February 8, 1971, the
bishops' conference issued a statement denouncing Küng's
book. Ratzinger contributed to a 1971 volume edited by Karl
Rahner that contained essays critical of Küng's book.
Both Ratzinger 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."
Kung defends his work "I have not wished the absence of Herr Ratzinger here
because I do not wish to speak to him," Küng said in
Stuttgart, "but because I had at least imagined (which
has been confirmed here) that there might enter into
this colloquium a fundamental sharpness and emotionality
which would not be wished by me." In the meantime, Ratzinger had been consecrated as
cardinal-archbishop of Munich, and he became involved in
the internal discussions within the bishops' conference
about the Küng affair. Several letters moved back and
forth between Ratzinger, Cardinal Josef Höffner of
Cologne, Küng's chief critic among the bishops during
much of the 1970s, and Küng. The first hint of a disciplinary measure in the works
came in an Oct. 16, 1979, radio interview given by
Ratzinger, in which he was strongly critical of Küng's
article about the pope. On Nov. 5-9, the German
cardinals were in Rome for a meeting with the pope. In
an interview afterwards with the German Catholic news
agency, Ratzinger used the term missio canonica
for the first time in connection to the case, saying
that Küng 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. On Dec. 18, 1979, the German bishops held a press
conference announcing a declaration from the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that Küng was
no longer qualified to be a Catholic theologian. In a sermon on Dec. 31, 1979, Ratzinger defended the
action against Küng 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, 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 as between faith
and the secular world.
The e-mail address for John L.
Allen Jr. is
jallen@natcath.org
Posted
Monday September 26, 2005 at 11:52 a.m. CDT
old friends and archrivals
have a cordial meeting
By John L. Allen Jr.
NCR Rome correspondent
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 one another.
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.