Prodigal
Altar Boy Blog
19
March 2012
Happy Birthday, Hans Kung!
Today
is Hans Kung’s birthday. I’ll save you
the trip to Wikipedia and tell you:
“Hans
Kung is a Swiss Catholic priest, theologian, and prolific author. Since 1995 he
has been President of the Foundation for a Global Ethic (Stiftung Weltethos).
Küng is "a Catholic priest in good standing",but the Vatican has
rescinded his authority to teach Catholic theology. He had to leave the
Catholic faculty, but remained at the University of Tübingen as a professor of ecumenical
theology, serving as an emeritus professor since 1996. Although Küng is not
officially allowed to teach Catholic theology, neither his bishop nor the Holy
See have revoked his priestly faculties.”
The
full Wiki page is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_K%C3%BCng
Q:
“What’s so important about Hans Kung?”
A: In terms of “The TQ Project,” Hans Kung’s book,
“The Council, Reform and Reunion,” is central to TQ’s story. That 1961 book was the main book TQ
recommended to his first parish in Alexandria as essential to understanding the
Second Vatican Council. Pope John XXIII’s
1959 encyclical Truth, Unity and Peace,
states that while the Council would “…discuss important matters of religion...the
most pressing topics will be those which concern the spread of the Catholic
faith, the revival of Christian standards of morality and the bringing of ecclesiastical
discipline into closer accord with the needs and conditions of our times."
(emphasis added)
That
last bit on bringing ecclesiastical discipline into accord with the modern age
was TQ’s mission. In an interview, TQ
confirmed that press coverage of the Council, combined with implications of the
Council as well as the questions it raised, compelled him to educate his parish
about the Second Vatican Council. In his
words, “We had to wake the people up.”
I
was reviewing Art’s recollection of TQ’s fervor, quoting from stacks of tomes
he hauled from the pulpit. TQ said
hundreds of Kung’s book were sold at the parish.
