Kung Unrepentant

When Hans Kung arrived last week for his first lecture after the University of Tuebingen's holiday break, the classroom was jammed with 300 students and onlookers. Another 300 next door listened in via loudspeaker. The Vatican may have declared him unfit to be considered a Roman Catholic theologian, but Father Kung was back at his Tuebingen lectern, at which he has taught since 1960 and now occupies as bestselling author, West German celebrity and a focus of Catholic theological rebellion.

Kung scrapped his scheduled lecture on the Apostles' Creed and instead read a long statement titled "Why I Remain a Catholic," and answered questions. He emphasized again his rejection of the doctrinal infallibility of the Pope and the bishops. "I have no intention of giving up my duties as a priest and theologian, or of leaving the church," he stated. "To teach absolute obedience to the leader is a disservice to the younger generation."

The West German hierarchy did not agree. In a "declaration" to be read from every pulpit in the nation this week, it said: "Not even the Pope himself is free from error. But if the bishops and the Pope state that something is God-revealed, then the help of the Holy Spirit prevents them from error. This is what Professor Kung denies, and it is a fundamental tenet of the faith."

After the Vatican acted against Kung last month, 2,000 demonstrators rallied in Lucerne, Switzerland, waving such banners as: AFTER THE VATICAN COUNCIL - THE ICE AGE. In Rottenburg, West Germany, within 48 hours, 4,000 people signed a petition from an ad hoc protest committee. Last week worshipers emerged from Mass at the cathedral in Cologne to find 37 protesting priests and seminarians hanging Kung in effigy and burning his books: the pantomime was intended to satirize the church's decision. Otherwise, the Kung case has so far produced joint protests from scholars but little of the general uproar that attended, say, Pope Paul's birth control encyclical. In West Germany, Kung enjoys wide, but not overwhelming, backing among younger priests and the laity. In Rome, he is viewed more as a popularizer than a serious theologian.

The Vatican acted under terms of its concordat with Germany, a holdover from the era of the diplomat Popes, under which professors of Roman Catholic theology at state institutions must have a missio canonica (canonical mission to teach) from the local bishop. In Kung's case, this is Bishop Georg Moser of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. Austria is the only other nation where a concordat gives bishops so much power over theologians at secular campuses. Elsewhere, except for schools under direct church control, the Vatican has only the power to inform Catholics that a professor's views are not sanctioned.

Kung has long declined to go to Rome unless the Vatican guarantees him an open hearing, which it has refused to do. When the decree was issued, he met with Bishop Moser, who agreed to take a letter from Kung to the Pope. After that, John Paul II held a five-hour meeting on the case with three Vatican officials, Moser and four other German bishops. The result: all participants agreed to stand firm, and Moser returned to notify the university and the education ministry of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

As things stood last week, Kung is a supposedly verbotener theologian who remains a member of Tuebingen's Catholic faculty and head of its Institute for Ecumenical Research. But in compliance with the concordat, Kung will no longer officially instruct would-be priests or those training to teach Catholic theology, formerly 60% of his students. They may sit in on his lectures, but will not receive academic credit. The minister-president of Baden-Wuerttemberg state, Lothar Spath, plans a "careful legal examination" of the concordat to determine whether Kung can remain on the Catholic faculty at Tuebingen. If not, he promised Kueng an "adequate alternative" and "full protection as a tenured civil servant." But if the education ministry tries to switch Kung to another department, he is prepared to take his case to court.

Whatever the legal outcome, the hierarchy is adamant. "The true faith is that of St. Peter and the bishops, not that of the professors. Otherwise the word of God would be abandoned in chaos and confusion," declares Cologne's Joseph Cardinal Heffner, head of the West German bishops' conference. Adds Bishop Moser: "The church cannot become a playground for conflicts of theology."

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