Küng: A Voice of Hope

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Times may be dark and uncertain in religious spheres.  For many Catholics in the US, Europe and Latin America, for example, who have lost hope in the current Vatican ecclesiastical  monarchs, there echoes in the midst of confused people of God a hero of faith who has withstood canonical sanctions authored by Josef Ratzinger or Pope Benedict XVI, the catholic institution´s high priest who, like other popes, claims to have infallibility over matters of faith and morality.  His name is Hans Küng, a Swiss theologian whose critical approach to church reform outmatches Ratzinger, his former colleague-professor at Tübingen.  While Küng pushes for empowerment in the church, Ratzinger insists on the centralization of power on his office as well as his cohorts.  Küng looks forward to the future while Ratzinger looks back to the past.  Küng is a sole voice in the desert crying out for reform, Ratzinger is a potent force quashing initiatives for reform.  Küng longs for a church revival according to the experience of the first christian communities, Ratzinger lives on nostalgia of medieval monarchical churches.  Küng´s only source of power is his christian sense of thinking aided by people of good faith from a variety of beliefs.  Ratzinger´s power is reinforced by canonical structure backed up by the powerful cardinals, bishops and religious institutions.  Küng has suffered under the hands of the dominant Ratzinger but he remains steadfast in his quest for reform along these years even outside ecclesiastical circles.  His reasoning is solidly based on profound biblical and christian foundations that are simply irrefutable.  The ecclesiastical superpowers have silenced him to no avail. He may have got sympathizers around the world but many of them are cautious and careful for fear of possible punishments and sanctions.  In the end, Küng is among the very few courageous and prophetic individuals alive today who suffer at the hands of religious powers.  He echoes the voice of the one whose suffering and death were authored by the Sanhedrin.  Indeed, Küng is a unique and constant voice of hope in the midst crisis and darkness.

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More on Has Küng, click here

See the most recent sanction from Ratzinger here