Peace offering stirs new debate

National Catholic Reporter, Nov 13, 1998 by John L. Jr. Allen

Ratzinger's visit to symposium honoring Metz is blasted by Kung

In a gesture of rapprochement with a theologian whose relations with the Vatican have sometimes been strained, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the church's top doctrinal official, was the featured speaker at an Oct. 27 symposium marking Fr. Johann Baptist Metz's 70th birthday.

While some hailed Ratzinger's action as an olive branch for church dissidents, liberal Swiss theologian Fr. Hans Kung blasted Metz for sharing a stage with Ratzinger without pressing him on issues of church reform.

Metz is known as one of Germany's leading theological minds and the father of "political theology," arguing that Christianity must be involved in political and social struggles. His work in the 1960s and 1970s was foundational for liberation theology, a movement criticized by both Ratzinger and the pope for allegedly stressing this-worldly political progress at the expense of eternal salvation.

Metz's conflict with Ratzinger is also personal; in 1979, as cardinal of Munich, Ratzinger blocked Metz from a teaching appointment at the local university. Later, Metz signed a statement criticizing the Vatican's attempts to erode academic freedom in European universities.

Taken in concert with the January lifting of the excommunication of the Sri Lankan theologian, Fr. Tissa Balasuriya, and the positive comments directed at Kung in March by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano, some saw Ratzinger's bow to Metz as evidence of a kinder, gentler approach in Rome.

"I am not 100 percent sure myself, but many of my colleagues had the impression that this [Ratzinger's appearance] was a gesture of reconciliation toward the theological community," Metz said in a telephone interview with NCR. "Many German newspapers treated it that way, saying explicitly that this is a new opening from Rome."

During the one-day event in Ahaus, Germany, both Ratzinger and Metz gave speeches on one of Metz's favorite themes, apocalyptic imagery in the Bible and its importance for Christian theology. The two men later engaged in a half-hour dialogue. Other presenters included well-known Protestant theologian Jurgen Moltmann and Jewish scholar Eveline Goodman-Thau.

Kung derided Metz, however, for appearing with Ratzinger without making the case for internal church reform. "It is astonishing" and "a deep scandal" that Metz "would offer the Grand Inquisitor a forum," Kung wrote in an open letter published before the Ahaus symposium.

Kung, a professor at the University of Tubingen, Germany, lost his license to teach as a Catholic theologian when it was revoked by John Paul II. He described Ratzinger as the head of a worldwide apparatus of oppression, which "daily receives denunciations from all over the world against bishops, theologians, vowed sisters and brothers, ministers, and men and women engaged in the church, and carefully registers them all in computers."

Paraphrasing the ancient Roman, Cato the Elder, Kung concluded his article with the exhortation, "The Roman Inquisition must be destroyed."

The encounter between Ratzinger and Metz attracted wide attention in the German media, in part because of their personal history. Ratzinger's refusal to allow Metz to teach at the University of Munich had been cited by many observers as an early hint of the intolerance for dissent with which Ratzinger would govern the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Ratzinger said during the symposium that he had come to "show respect" for Metz. News accounts called the exchanges between the two men "cordial" and "conciliatory."

Reached at his home in Munster, Metz rejected Kung's criticism. "Sometimes Kung conducts himself like a second magisterium. To tell you the troth, one is enough, at least for me," Metz said. He said he was "very hurt, very disappointed, very angry" about Kung's comments.

"One of the factors in inviting Ratzinger was to show that the spiritual and intellectual dimensions of the Catholic church are much broader than they are often understood," Metz said. "In Germany we often find ourselves voicing our criticisms among ourselves with our back to Rome. We said no, no, we must face Rome, direct it to them, try to enter into a critical dialogue."

According to Kung, however, it is precisely the lack of such a critical dialogue at the symposium that irked him. In a telephone interview with NCR from his office in Tubingen, Kung said that Ratzinger agreed to appear in Ahaus only with the understanding that inner-church disputes would riot be discussed.

"He is the chief authority of the Inquisitorial office. It's like having a general conversation about human rights with the head of the KGB," Kung said.

"This is practically a capitulation to the Roman system, a kind of making peace with Ratzinger, when the real task of political theology should be to identify itself with the suffering people in our church," Kung said.

"They are abusing talk about God to avoid dealing with problems in the church," Kung said.