Two Old Books

The only two books with broken bindings in my Catholic bookcase are my sister’s Baltimore Catechism and On Being a Christian by Hans Küng. Much used, the books reflect an ideological transition in the lifetime of the Vatican II generation. Küng’s was a gift from my late friend Mary Ellen Anderson; the binding is broken because she and her husband split the paperback in several parts so they could read it at the same time. And the copy I read went with my husband when we separated. It was that important to all of us! 

Question #1167 in the catechism asks: “May a woman receive the sacrament of Holy Orders?” And the answer: “A woman may not receive the sacrament of Holy Orders; by the law of God only a man can receive this sacrament.” NO doubt there! No wonder so many bishops have difficulty if they committed this to memory. 

My sister wrote in below the answer to question #389, “How many Popes have governed the Church from St. Peter to Pius XII? “John XXIII, 263 Popes,” so this pinpoints the moment in Church time she was using this textbook. 

Near the end of On Being a Christian, Hans Küng asks the classic question, “What is to be done?” (525) Part of the answer: “Women should have at least that dignity, freedom and responsibility in the Church which they are guaranteed in modern society; equal rights in canon law, in the Church’s decision-making bodies, and also practical opportunities of studying theology and being ordained.” This is followed immediately by consideration of “morality, freedom and conscience, … a new attitude to sexuality, remembering that the younger generation can find more ways than one of maintaining purity of heart.” (This book was written in 1974, I will note here.) This section goes on, “birth control, even by artificial methods, should be left to the married parties to decide conscientiously…the leaders of the Church should revise the present teaching (I will also note that “abortion” is not in the extensive index.) Finally, “We must not be silent. The requirements of the Gospel and the needs and hopes of our time are…so unambiguous that silence…can involve guilt.” (526-527) 

Küng claims that he wants “a middle way between revolution and merely putting up with the situation” and goes on to encourage bishops, theologians, and “every member of the parish…to do something for the renewal of the Church.” (528) 

Can you see how liberating this chunky book might have been? I read it in book groups in my traditional parish in Vermont and then in the small faith community I joined after moving to Pennsylvania. And this is what Hans Küng did for me, already with a Catholic college education with enough theology and philosophy for a major? I subscribed to NCR almost from its beginnings and later to Celebration and the Anchor Bible book club for a long time. But there is more to be done! There is so much to learn! 

Many of the articles noting Küng’s death this past Tuesday are obliquely critical of his role as a popularizer and media personality. But for those of us who took our faith seriously, he gave permission to express and understand our faith in new ways. On Being a Christian was a Manifesto by a theologian-leader at the gates of Rome, if not the Finland Station. 

America republishes a 1962 article by Avery Dulles, who would die in 2008 a Jesuit Cardinal, in which he says that Küng’s The Council, Reform and Reunion should be the most widely read of many European theologians’ books in preparation for Vatican II. (America, in its inimitable way, puts first in the biographical links for Dulles his 1996 article on women in the priesthood, in which he recommends to women, patience, and to the Church, not declaring heresy.) 

On Küng, the most satisfying published article I have found so far is by Patricia LeFevere in NCR. It’s personal and theological, dealing with disputes and reconciliations. 

Most theological is Roger Haight in America; he summarizes the early books and Küng’s post -1979 shift from church reform to ecumenism and world religions. 

Douglas Martin in The New York Times does what an obituary should do, but seems very American and factual among these sources. 

Christa Pongratz-Lippett in The Tablet quotes Cardinal Walter Kasper in an Italian paper, wanting, it seems, to assure us that Küng has died in the good graces of the Church. Pope Francis conveyed his “greetings and blessings” to Küng through this long-time friend and colleague. And Pope Benedict XIV “was praying for him.” “‘Küng had been a “harsh critic and sometimes unjust, but in the depth of his heart he always remained in the Church and never thought of leaving it. He wanted to do the best for the Church from the inside and remained a Christian and a Catholic,’” Kasper emphasized. Exactly the way I feel. 

Christopher Lamb, also in The Tablet, has another personal and complete article, which includes links to several of Küng’s pieces in that British journal in this century.

Commonweal puts out a 1971 interview of Küng by Claude-Francois Jullien, apparently following the publication of Küng’s The Church that year. It’s confrontational, and gives a very good sense of Küng in real life. 

Finally, I link to Leonard Swidler’s reflections for ARCC. One of my first SEPA WOC meetings was at the home of Len and his late wife Arlene, where Küng stayed when in Philadelphia. I was so impressed – also with a little sticker in German on the bathroom light that reminded everyone to not waste water when flushing – ahead of anything I knew up to then! Len reflects here on how “plausible” and therefore problematic Küng’s theology was to “anti-intellectual” church authority. Len’s article is the most personal of all, and by one of the persons who will miss Hans Küng the most.