{"id":217,"date":"2009-02-14T07:09:06","date_gmt":"2009-02-14T07:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/tonyjones\/2009\/02\/pope-barack.html"},"modified":"2009-02-14T07:09:06","modified_gmt":"2009-02-14T07:09:06","slug":"pope-barack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2009\/02\/pope-barack.html","title":{"rendered":"Pope Barack?"},"content":{"rendered":"

That’s the dream of none other than esteemed Catholic theologian, Hans Kung<\/a>.  At Religion Dispatches, Rosemary Ganley reports<\/a>,<\/p>\n

\n

To get right to the point, Kung in his article<\/a>
\non February 3, wished Barack Obama were Pope. “The mood in the church
\nis oppressive, reforms are paralyzed, and the church in crisis,” he
\nsays. “Benedict is unteachable in matters of birth control and
\nabortion, arrogant and without transparency and restrictive of freedom
\nand human rights.” <\/p>\n

For Kung, Benedict should act as Obama has
\ndone, declaring a crisis, identifying the problems, proclaiming a
\nvision of hope, revitalizing ecumenism, gathering competent colleagues
\nof either gender, and using the power of his executive office to issue
\ndecrees (unhindered by such institutions as a democratically-elected
\nCongress or a Supreme Court.) <\/p>\n

But no, “the Pope is reorienting
\nhimself backward, inspired by the ideal of the medieval church, looking
\ntoward the Council of 1870, not the one of 1965.” <\/p>\n

Can the Roman
\nChurch, he asks, give birth to an episcopacy which does not conceal its
\nmanifest problems, theologians not afraid to speak out and a climate to
\nencourage women leaders? Kung is playful: “Yes, we can,” he writes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That’s the dream of none other than esteemed Catholic theologian, Hans Kung.  At Religion Dispatches, Rosemary Ganley reports, To get right to the point, Kung in his article on February 3, wished Barack Obama were Pope. “The mood in the church is oppressive, reforms are paralyzed, and the church in crisis,” he says. “Benedict is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church"],"yoast_head":"\nPope Barack? - The New Christians<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2009\/02\/pope-barack.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pope Barack? - The New Christians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"That’s the dream of none other than esteemed Catholic theologian, Hans Kung.  At Religion Dispatches, Rosemary Ganley reports, To get right to the point, Kung in his article on February 3, wished Barack Obama were Pope. “The mood in the church is oppressive, reforms are paralyzed, and the church in crisis,” he says. “Benedict is…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2009\/02\/pope-barack.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The New Christians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-02-14T07:09:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tony Jones\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pope Barack? - The New Christians","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2009\/02\/pope-barack.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pope Barack? 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