Hans Kung Declines Invitation To German Vatican II Celebrations

This is taken from Clerical Whispers Blog and I read it with some sadness.


" Hans Kung has declined an invitation to attend celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council at the German Katholikentag at Mannheim, held from tomorrow until Sunday. 

The Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), Germany's largest Catholic lay organisation which is organising the Congress and has more than 12 million members, invited Fr Küng and the former President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Walter Kasper, to participate in their "Council Gala". 

But four days before the congress was due to begin, Fr Küng declined.

"I was honoured to receive the invitation but is one really in the mood to celebrate at a time when the Church is in such sore distress?" Fr Küng asked in his four-page reply. 

"In my opinion there is no reason for a festive Council Gala but rather for an honest service of penance or a funeral service," he said.

I would love to read the full reply Hans Kung made to the ZdK but so far I have not been able to find it. If anyone comes across it I would be grateful if they could let me know. 


Meanwhile as Pentecost approaches and as it is the 5Oth Anniversary Year of Vatican II  here's an opportunity to revisit some views of what Vatican II meant.


"Seven inches of condemnations and one of praise: is that the way to talk to the modern world?—John XXIII
(After taking a ruler to a page of one of the haughty and pompous schemata, drafts prepared by the curia for approval of the Council Fathers. From John XXIII: Pope of the Century by Pete Hebblethwaite (p. 213).")









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