Leading dissident calls Catholic Church a dictatorship

Küng vergleicht Katholische Kirche mit totalitären Systemen | Politik - Frankfurter Neue Presse - Frankfurt:

Küng compares Catholic Church with totalitarian systems.The theologian and papal critic Hans Küng sees the Catholic Church as an apparatus of power, which throughout the world has more and more parallels dictatorships. With the help of informers and surveillance, bishops are tamed , a dissenting opinion not being allowed.

The theologian Hans Küng sees in the Catholic Church more and more parallels with dictatorships. The Roman Curia has succeeded in shaping the bishops of the world through close supervision and with the help of informers into a docile machine, the 84-year-old professor said on Thursday in a commentary for the "Sueddeutsche Zeitung". This apparatus recalls "in its power structure, the leading cadres in totalitarian and dictatorial systems, where no one dares to express a dissenting opinion." The "medieval polarising" Pope Benedict XVI is blocking reforms and thereby knowingly risks the collapse of pastoral care and parishes, Küng wrote.

He also exercised strong criticism at the Catholic Congress where almost 30,000 participants for the whole event are expected and tens of thousands of daily visitors. "The laity should be assured rather than take seriously that the lack of reform in Mannheim will result in initial talks. "Therefore, he had refused an invitation to the great voluntary forum whose slogan is "a daring new departure".

If the Catholics wanted to actually accomplish changes in the church, they should have the courage to stand up to the official church, Kung said. "Bishops are not due any obedience, when they themselves are disobedient to the Gospel, when they make the laws governing the welfare of the church congregations and parish priests," said Kung. The Vatican withdrew from the theologian his license as a Catholic professor in 1979 because of his persistent criticism of the Pope.

Cathcon- this appears on first reading to be the same old Küng set in the same old groove. The former colleague of the present Pope when both were progressive theologians chose a different path. However, his refusal to attend the Mannheim Catholic Conference is indicative of a more radical edge that has crept into the rhetoric of dissent in the Catholic Church. The post-conciliar generation, whether in Austria or Ireland, sense that power is slipping away from them, as their age advances and they therefore determinedly re-assert it.