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According to theologian Hans Kung, the Catholic Church is seriously ill, possibly terminally, and only an honest diagnosis and radical reforms will cure it.
Introducing his new book “Can the Church Still Be Saved?”, Kung argues that the malady of the church goes beyond recent sexual abuse scandals.
According to him, the church’s resistance to reform, in its secrecy, lack of transparency and misogyny are at the heart of the problem.
He said that the Catholic church in the United States has lost one-third of its membership.”The American Catholic church never asked why,” he said.”Any other institution that has lost a third of its members would want to know why.” He also said that eighty percent of German bishops would welcome reforms.
He told the mostly elderly audience, “I would have preferred not to write this book. It is not pleasant to dedicate such a critical publication to the church that has remained my church.”
Kung compared the changes needed in the Catholic Church to the democratic changes taking place in the Arab world.”When will in our church the youth take to the street? That is our problem; we have no young people anymore,” he said to laughter from the 350 people present.
Referring to the celibacy debate that arose after the sexual abuse cases, Kung said, “the Roman Catholic church survived for the first thousand years without celibacy.” He is strongly in favour of allowing priests and bishops to marry.
Kung said he has not lost his vision of a church that would meet the expectations of millions of Christians, but certain conditions have to be met. In their reforms, this Church should show Christian radicalism, constancy and coherency.
In concluding Kung said, “I have not given up the hope that it will survive.”
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