More Küng-fusion

From Deutsche Welle, more from the insufferable Hans Küng/Kueng:

An emeritus professor of ecumenical theology at the University of Tuebingen in southern Germany, Kueng said he was "very sad" over the direction that the current church leadership was taking

I'm sure he is all tore up about it, especially since the man, I'm quite convinced, is more than a little miffed that he was never elected pope . But I think he is also sad that the Catholic Church continues to hold to Catholic doctrine and moral teaching. After all, someone who says, "“The Church’s absolute prohibition of abortion is a merciless extremism that could be anything but Christian," would appear to have issues with essential points of Catholic moral theology.

"I was hoping that he Pope Benedict would show himself as reforming, ecumenical and open for the future. But this hope has been bitterly disappointed," Swiss-born Kueng said.

Sad. Bitter. Disappointed. Say, maybe that could the title of another 1,200 page book by Küng! Of course, it couldn't be written until he finishes all ten volumes of his memoirs.

"Pope Benedict XVI seriously angered many faithful Catholics and suffered a severe loss of his credibility. This is sad," Kueng said.

I recognize Küng's expertise in the area of losing credibility, but I'm mystified by his concern about Benedict allegedly angering faithful Catholics. After all, hasn't that been a key part of Küng's work for many years now? Wait—I get it: he's concerned that Benedict might be somehow trying to take over a bit of turf that he's jealously guarding: angering faithful Catholics.

In related news, Fr. Richard McBrien recently wrote a column in which he stated "some readers may have difficulty fully grasping the central point of this week's column." Actually, the point of the column was quite obvious, since all of McBrien's columns are aimed in some way or another at attacking Church authority (especially papal authority), undermining Catholic doctrine, and abusing sound logic and good grammar. What is not so clear is the point of McBrien continuing to write weekly columns...

UPDATE (March 2, 2009): Catholic News Service has more information about Küng's remarks; they are even worse than the story above indicates. For example:

"Benedict XVI has always lived in an ecclesial environment. He has not traveled much. He's always remained closed in the Vatican -- which is quite similar to how the Kremlin was at one time -- where he is safe from criticism," Father Kung said.

In any case, he said, the lifting of the excommunications was not a mistake in communications or tactics, but an error in church governance. He said it was "scandalous" that on the 50th anniversary of the convening of the Second Vatican Council Pope Benedict moved to reintegrate people who were opposed to the council's teachings.

And yet, however uneven and difficult the last two months have been with the SSPX situation, the SSPX has so far shown much more interest in carefully examining and considering the Council's teachings than has Küng, whose support for abortion/contraception and disdain for Humanae Vitae are well known. Go figure. And while we're at it: what is up with the bizarre reference to the Kremlin?!

• Hans Küng insults Benedict XVI, dreams of "Pope Obama" (Feb. 9, 2009)
• Hans Küng needs to write less and read more (Sept. 11, 2007)
• Hans Kung Has a Religion the New York Times Can Love | Donna Steichen | Catholic World Report | June 2005

Comments

[Benighted]

Everybody was Kung-fu fighting?

Does this mean Kung is a practioner of the Hong Kong school of textual criticism?

[Joe]

"this hope has been bitterly disappointed"

Bitterly!! Comments like this one make all the more sure of the Pope's steps.

[adrian]

The national catholic reporter endorses his visions,and call him father Kung,I believe that they want too Obama as a Pope....

[NW Clerk]

I say this as charitably as possible, and I mean that - no sarcasm intended: but I think Kung has lost his mind. OK, he was always a protestant; I get that - I had to read his stuff in divinity school - but he has just gone so far off the deep end recently, and shown such MASSIVE misunderstandings about the Pope, the faith, etc. Imagine thinking the Pope could wave a wand and simply do away with 2,000 years of magisterial teaching! Each and every single thing he writes leaves me gasping ....someone shut this man up, put him out of his misery, some friend, some colleague, SOMEONE.

It appears that he has rotted from this inside out to his excessive anger, bitterness, and jealousy. He has no joy in the truth, no joy in Christ, his whole life is an ugly, bitter attack. There is no humility in him - by that I mean, no happiness that the lucid truth has appeared, even if HE wasn't the one to state it.

Seriously - has he NO ONE who can tell him he is cracking up? He is behaving as irrationally as my dear and beloved mother did when she first started showing Alzheimer's symptoms - she became paranoid, angry....after we got her on meds, we were able to enjoy a loving 3 more years with her.....

The man needs an Intervention led by people who know him, people he would respect, and I say that from the bottom of my heart in Christian love. All the rest of us can do is pray for him.