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Catholics, says Küng, are traditionally wary about talking of reform- the word has dangerous Protestant overtones-but in the present age that is precisely what is needed. "Every institution, even the holiest (the celebration of the Eucharist), every aspect of organization (even the primacy of Rome) can, through the historical process of formation and deformation, come to need renewal, and must then be reformed and renewed. Indeed, the holier the institution, the worse the damage, and the more urgent the renewal...
Sympathy for Luther. Küng points out that historically Catholicism has proved that it can reform. During the 10th century-a "saeculum obscurum of the worst abuses in Church and Papacy"-the monasteries, notably the great Burgundian abbey of Cluny, provided both the spiritual means and the men to effect reform. Even before Luther broke from Rome, men like the Dominican Vincent Ferrer and the Franciscan Bernadine of Siena were working to renew Catholicism from within. Yet one major reason why the Vatican rejected Luther's cries for change was because "neither Rome nor the Church...
...many Protestants, the clock of Catholicism appears to have stopped in the Middle Ages; Küng says they are wrong. Some major reforms of attitudes and actions-notably as a result of the Jesuits, the Council of Trent, and Popes Leo XIII, Pius XII and John XXIII-have been accomplished within the church. Küng argues that many of these changes have answered the initial demands of the Reformers. In historical scholarship, European Catholic writers nowadays exude sympathy for the motives of Luther...
...heart: the concept of the priesthood of all believers. Catholic moralists now pay full respect to the right of the individual conscience before God. Barriers that to Protestants seem almost insurmountable remain-notably the Marian emphasis of Catholicism, and the supremacy of the Pope-but Küng asks: "If Martin Luther had lived in the Catholic Church of today, what course would he have followed? Is it absolutely certain that that course would have taken him out of the Church...
...Forgive Us Our Sins!" But because the need for Christian reunion is so great, even more sweeping reforms are needed, and both Catholics and Protestants have looked hopefully to Pope John's Vatican Council to achieve some of them. Among the suggestions for renewal that Küng himself favors...