Human Life International's Winter 2007 Millstone Award

Joining an notorious gang of dissidents & heretics who have done immeasurable harm to the faith of a large number of Catholics is the latest winner of HLI's Millstone Award (Luke 17:1-2), Fr. Hans Küng.

To paraphrase a line from a song: "Where do I begin to tell the story of how great a heritic he is?" Or maybe I can use the opening line of the movie that that song is the theme of: "What can you say about a Seventy-eight-year-old dissident who lied? That he was egotistical and self-serving? That he didn't loved truth and orthodoxy, the Pope, or Church authority?"*

For those of you who aren't familiar with him, or his writings, unlike most previous winners of the award, Fr. Küng's damage hasn't been limited to the United States. Fr. Küng was ordained in 1954 after graduating from Pontifical Gregorian University. For me, this raises the question: "How could someone with so good a start take such a wrong turn?" He was appointed a professor of theology in 1960 at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Germany. He was appointed a peritus at Vatican II by Papa Giovanni XIII. & for a few years Papa Benedetto (Fr. Ratzinger at the time) was also a colleague of his.

Fr. K's wrong turn became public in 1971 with the publication of Infallibility: An Inquiry. In this book he completely rejected the doctrine of papal infallibility & became the hero of Catholic dissidents world-wide. In my opinion, what he did could be described as paving the highway, providing the sports car, fully fueled & printing the road maps to allow untold numbers of people to reject any & all truths that Christ & Christianity have taught for the last 2000 years. He is literally, the designer & builder of the "autobahn" (highway) to hell for so many. After an investigation by the Church, on 18 December 1979 he was stripped of his license to teach as a Roman Catholic theologian. But because he had tenure, the university kept him on until his retirement in 1996. He described this as an "Inquisition" at the hands of Pope John Paul II. He ignores the fact that he was neither excommunicated nor stripped of his facilities as a priest.

As HLI puts it: "Unfortunately, Fr Küng represents a type of dissent that is perhaps much more dangerous than the kind we are used to hearing about in the mainstream media. His is the quiet, scholorly, "reasonable" approach that appeals to far more people than the loud and obnoxious demands made by the high-profile organized dissenters. His greatest impact is among fellow intellectuals, who then go forth to deceive many others."

Fr. K hasn't met a dogma that he likes. Whether it is infallibility, or the Church's teaching on contraception, etc, he considers any teaching that the Church presents as a "burden". As HLI says, his "undisputed intelligence and knowledge seems incapable of grasping the simple truth that the Church exists to set people free, not to enslave them." He ignores the proven fact that "Catholics who follow Church teaching are consistantly happier than those who pick and choose the teachings they will follow." The Church caused the Holocaust in his mind. & calls everyone to "fight the patriarchal misunderstanding of God."

"In summary, Fr. Küng firmly believes that the purpose of religion is not to worship and serve God, but to empower and serve people." Funny, but that sounds amazingly like the lie the serpent told Eve about self-empowerment.

On the other hand, there is 1 place where he "firmly believes the absolute truth and authority resides---in himself." HLI's proof, his 2003 memoir My Struggle for Freedom.# "In this book, he preens relentlessly while savagely condemning lesser mortals (i.e., those who disagree with him) as agents of 'spiritual dictatorship' and 'church totalitarianism.'" Naturally he "reserves his greatest venom for [then] Cardinal Ratzinger." This is in contrast to the loving concern & forgiveness that Papa Benedetto has shown by inviting Fr. Küng to dine with him on 26 Sept. 2005.

In conclusion I totally agree with HLI when it says why Fr. Küng "is so deserving of the Millstone Award." "We can, however, offer Father Küng a poignant and melancholy tribute---He could have saved so many." To that I can add nothing.

# The German title, Erkampfte Freiheit, is reminiscent to me of Hitler's Mein Kampf.

*For those of you who are too young to remember, the movie that I took this from is Love Story, the story of a self-absorbed yuppie who falls in love with a poor girl from the wrong side of the tracks. Neither of them have a lot of redeeming qualities.