Page 1, 5th June 1992

5th June 1992

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Page 1, 5th June 1992 — Ratzinger slams Rome dissenters
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Locations: Cologne, Rome

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Ratzinger slams Rome dissenters

by our Rome correspondent IN A new call to theological order, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has accused progressives of "degrading" the Church.
His attack, one of the most severe since over 500 European theologians endorsed the 1988 anti-Rome protest known as the Declaration of Cologne, is seen as a response to new criticism of the current Pontificate.
Cardinal Ratzinger was speaking at a convention in Rome's Gregorian University as the "dissenting" Swiss theologian Hans Kung made public his latest assessment of the Church under Pope John Paul IL Writing in the latest edition of the international theological review Concilium, Kung described the current Pontificate as a "spiritual dictatorship" and warned of the danger of religious fundamentalism which, he said, had become consolidated under John Paul.
"We are dealing with a spiritual dictatorship exercised by a Pope who did not learn the lesson of democracy either under Nazism or under Communism" said Kung, who in 1979 was forbidden to teach theology in Catholic institutions because of his repeated attacks on the Pope.
Cardinal Ratzinger's counterresponse has now opened a new theological debate, exactly four years after the publication of the Declaration of Cologne which listed three main protests against intransigence on social questions, the procedure for Episcopal
nominations and overcentralisation by Rome
The Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was addressing the convention to mark the 20th anniversary of a rival theological review, Communio.
The promoters of progressive theology, the cardinal said, had "degraded the Church," confusing
Councils with political deliberations "as if they had the right to alter the faith".
Progressives were offering the "dregs of a liberal storehouse and passing these off as a new and true Catholic theology".
He condemned progressives for exploiting the atmosphere of the Council: "On the pretext of faith, they sought to make statements that satisfied the tastes of contemporaries." Sound theology extracts answers to human problems from the Word of God, he said.




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