Hans Küng, a Swiss theologian critical of the Catholic Church, died Tuesday (6) in the city of Tübingen, Germany, at the age of 93, announced the Global Ethics Foundation, which he founded.
“We regret the loss of our founder and longtime chairman, Hans Küng. It was and continues to be an honor for us to be able to continue his life’s work. We will preserve it, pursue it and develop it further – and we will bow in gratitude, ”the foundation said on social media.
Küng, born March 19, 1928 in Sursee, Switzerland, was professor emeritus of ecumenical theology at the University of Tübingen. In 2013, he retired from public life due to his health – he had Parkinson’s disease. The foundation did not specify the cause of death of the author of “Global Ethics in Latin America”.
In 1979, the Vatican banned Küng, one of the youngest participants in Vatican Council II, from teaching Catholic theology after a controversy over the Pope’s dogma of infallibility. At the time, he also ignored pressure from the Vatican to back down. In response, the University of Tübingen appointed him professor of ecumenical theology, a post in which he wrote dozens of books and articles.
At the council, held between 1962 and 1965, Küng defended a decentralized church, with the authorization of the marriage of priests and birth control. The ideas, as we know, were not adopted.
Most recently, in 2010, he asked Pope Benedict 16 to do a “mea culpa” for how cases of pedophilia in the church have been covered for decades. Küng criticized the attitude of the pontiff emeritus, shaken by revelations about sexual abuse committed in the past by members of the clergy.
Swiss theologian celebrated Pope Francis’ election in 2013 as “the best possible choice […], since he is an open-minded Latin American “and described the Argentine as” a beacon of hope “.
In his memoirs, he cited the struggle of Pope John Paul II, who died in 2013, against Parkinson’s disease and the silent suffering of boxer Muhammad Ali, also affected by the disease, as role models he did not want to follow. . “How long will my life be lived with dignity?” He asked. “No one is forced to suffer unbearably like something sent by God.”