Shortly after Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a leader in the campaign against dr. Küng, who became pope Benedict XVI in 2005, he had dr. Küng invited to his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, outside Rome. Pope John Paul II has more than a dozen of dr. Küng’s requests for a meeting denied.
Dr. Küng and Cardinal Ratzinger became friends when dr. Küng appointed Cardinal Ratzinger in 1965 to be a professor at the University of Tübingen. They became divided over the 1968 student uprising, which terrified Cardinal Ratzinger. They continued to differ, and dr. Küng referred to the cardinal, who was head of the Vatican office responsible for defending church orthodoxy, as ‘the great inquisitor’ or ‘head of the KGB’.
Nevertheless, after Cardinal Ratzinger became pope, the two enjoyed a long dinner in the pope’s summer residence after agreeing not to agree. Pope Benedict praised the efforts of Dr. Küng applauded the revival of the dialogue between religion and the natural sciences. Dr. Küng praised the pope for reaching out to other religions.
But after Benedict resigned from the papacy in 2013, dr. Küng suggested that the pope was out of step with “modernity” and that the church needed more progressive leadership.
“In this dramatic situation, the church needs a pope who does not live intellectually in the Middle Ages, and who does not pursue any form of medieval theology, liturgy or church law,” he writes, “a pope who stands up for freedom. of the church in the world, not just by giving sermons, but by fighting with words and deeds for freedom and human rights within the church, for theologians, for women, for all Catholics who want to speak the truth openly. ”
Dr. Küng’s image was clearly non-clerical. Athletic and attractive, he wore a fast suit, not a priest’s collar, and drove a sports car. On his travels to the United States, he occasionally appeared in television talk shows, and his youthful style showed comparisons to President John F. Kennedy.
Dr. Küng is chosen to become ‘professor’ or ‘doctor’ or ‘merely Hans Küng’, explaining that the title ‘Father’ is not traditionally used in German-speaking countries.