Hans Kung has died

Fr Hans Kung

Source: Global Ethic Foundation/German Bishops' Conference

The Swiss Catholic priest, theologian and author Dr Hans Kung has died. A spokesman for his Global Ethic Foundation, said: "We mourn our founder and longtime president Hans Kung. He passed away peacefully at his home in Tübingen today, April 06, 2021, at the age of 93. It was and remains an honour for us to continue his life's work. We will preserve, carry on and develop it in his own sense - and bow down in gratitude to its great founder."

Born on 19 March, 1928, in Sursee, Switzerland, Fr Kung was an outspoken theologian and one of the sharpest critics of St John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. He had worked with and studied with Pope Benedict, then-Fr Joseph Ratzinger, in Tübingen in the 1960s. Along with Fr Ratzinger, Fr Kung was one of the youngest theological experts advising bishops at the Second Vatican Council in 1962-65, but not long after the council he aroused controversy with his views on papal infallibility.

Because of this, his missio canonica, the licence needed to teach Catholic theology, was withdrawn in 1979 and he was no longer allowed to teach as a Catholic theologian at Catholic universities. From that time on, he became professor of ecumenical theology in Tübingen, until his retirement in 1996.

In 2005, just a few months after Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope, he and Fr Kung spent several hours together at Castel Gandolfo. A papal spokesman said the Pope and Fr Kung "agreed that in the space of this meeting it made no sense to enter into an argument about the doctrinal questions remaining between Hans Kung and the magisterium of the Church." Instead, they focused on two topics of Fr Kung's recent work: the possibility of developing a 'global ethic' drawing from all religious traditions and the dialogue between Christian faith and science.

After his retirement in 2011, he co-founded the Global Ethic Foundation at the University of Tübingen, He expressed the conviction that, without peace among religions, there can be no peace among nations.

In 2019, on the 40th anniversary of having his teaching licence withdrawn, Fr Küng told German Catholic media that he'd had an exchange of letters with Pope Francis and felt he had been informally rehabilitated ecclesiastically.

In statements and books, Fr Kung frequently criticised mandatory priestly celibacy, the ban on women priests and the 'Kremlin'-like Roman Curia - its resistance to reform, secrecy, lack of transparency and misogyny.

He expressed support for grassroots Catholic organisations calling for more democracy in the Church.

Bishop Dr Georg Bätzing, chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, said in a statement today: "With the death of Prof Dr Hans Kung, theological science loses a recognized and controversial researcher. In his work as a priest and scientist, it was a concern of Hans Kung to make the message of the Gospel understandable and to give it a seat in the life of believers. I am thinking above all of his efforts with regard to a lived ecumenism, his commitment to interreligious and intercultural dialogue and the Global Ethic Foundation he founded with its important research and projects on peace, justice and the integrity of creation.

"Hans Kung never missed the opportunity to stand up for his convictions. Even if there were tensions and conflicts in this regard, I would like to express my thanks to him in this hour of farewell for his many years of commitment as a Catholic theologian in communicating the Gospel. The dialogue between the religions in the striving for a global ethic was very important to him. Hans Kung was deeply influenced by the Second Vatican Council, which he endeavored to receive theologically.

"During this hour I also remember the visit of Prof Dr Hans Kung with Pope Benedict XVI. in September 2005 shortly after his election. Hans Kung leaves behind a rich theological legacy. We mourn for a personality who may now find peace in the hand of God."

See also: Hans Kung - Open Letter to Bishops - www.indcatholicnews.com/news/15996