In Search of Lost Time: Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, aka the Inquisition

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April 08, 2005

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, aka the Inquisition

Didn't know it still exists.

The cardinal was selected then by the pope to lead the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which, in other more dangerous times for people accused of heresy, was called the Inquisition.

In 1997, a Sri Lankan theologian, the Rev. Tissa Balasuriya, was even excommunicated after being accused of challenging fundamental Catholic tenets like original sin and the Immaculate Conception.

Cardinal Ratzinger became the first church leader to rebuke Father Kung publicly for increasingly liberal writings, and Father Kung was eventually banned from teaching at Catholic universities.

German Cardinal Has a Major Voice at the Funeral
By DANIEL J. WAKIN and MARK LANDLER, New York Times
Published: April 8, 2005

ROME, April 7 - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who will say the funeral Mass for Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square on Friday, was one of his closest collaborators and for now has become perhaps the leading force in the Roman Catholic Church.

A small white-haired man, Cardinal Ratzinger moved to John Paul's side as his doctrinal watchdog in 1981 and was said to have regular access to him. The cardinal was selected then by the pope to lead the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which, in other more dangerous times for people accused of heresy, was called the Inquisition.

Cardinal Ratzinger has acted as theological police officer, coming down hard on theologians who deviated from his interpretation of Catholic teaching.

In 1997, a Sri Lankan theologian, the Rev. Tissa Balasuriya, was even excommunicated after being accused of challenging fundamental Catholic tenets like original sin and the Immaculate Conception. The Rev. Charles E. Curran, who taught at Catholic University in Washington, was also disciplined, along with some Latin Americans who subscribed to liberation theology, which blended Marxist thought with religious efforts to help the poor.

Cardinal Ratzinger's first campaign, in the 1980's, was against liberation theology. More recently, he has waged a fight against religious relativism, which holds that no faith can claim to be the sole vessel of truth or to represent the world's only savior.

In the early 1960's, he was a theological adviser at the Second Vatican Council, the conference that transformed the church. He supported many of its efforts to make the church more open - but was later said to have turned against what he saw as excesses. It was part of an ideological transformation.

In 1966, the Rev. Hans Kung, a Swiss theologian, recruited him for the chair in dogmatic theology at Tubingen. He was so highly regarded, Father Kung said in an interview, that he was not asked to compete against other candidates, as is the custom in German universities.

The university was swept up in the protests of the 1960's. Hecklers interrupted his lectures, and the student parish, in which he was active, became radicalized. Repelled by what he saw as a neo-Marxist power grab, he left Tubingen in 1969 for the more conservative university at Regensburg in Bavaria.

"You will never understand him without knowing about his experience with the student revolts," Father Kung said. "He was disgusted by it."

Cardinal Ratzinger became the first church leader to rebuke Father Kung publicly for increasingly liberal writings, and Father Kung was eventually banned from teaching at Catholic universities.

Posted by mrl at April 8, 2005 08:17 AM

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In Search of Lost Time

子曰:「人而不仁,如礼何?」人而不仁,如乐何?」Confucius said, "If a man be without benevolence, what has he to do with the rites? If a man be without benevolence, what has he to do with music?" - 《论语》，The Analects 3:3

April 08, 2005

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, aka the Inquisition

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