Gotthold Hasenhüttl

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Gotthold Nathan Ambrosius Hasenhüttl (born December 2, 1933 in Graz ) is a church critic living in Germany . Until his suspension he worked as a Roman Catholic priest and until his church teaching license was withdrawn as a Catholic university professor for systematic theology .

Theologically, Hasenhüttl follows the relational-dialogical approach in his considerations, which aims to make ideas of existentialism of the 20th century fruitful for the systematics. He advocates intercommunion , i. H. the common Eucharistic celebration of Christians of different denominations , and for the lifting of the celibacy obligation for Catholic priests. This contradiction to Catholic dogmatics and further conflicts with the church leadership because of his criticism of the institution of the Roman Catholic Church, which he perceived as rigid and fundamentalist- oriented, led to his suspension by Reinhard Marx in 2003 and to the revocation of his teaching license as a Catholic university teacher in 2006 . 2010 Hasenhüttl came formally from the Roman Catholic Church from .

academic career

After attending elementary school in Graz, where he was born, and the academic grammar school there , Hasenhüttl studied philosophy and Catholic theology , first at the University of Graz , and from 1953 in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University . Here he obtained a licentiate in philosophy in 1956 and in theology in 1960. In 1959 he was ordained a priest in Rome .

1962 doctorate Hasenhüttl to Dr. theol. He then worked for two years as a chaplain in Sankt Lorenzen im Mürz Valley in Styria , before moving to the University of Tübingen as an assistant in 1964 . Hasenhüttl was the scientific assistant to Prof. Hans Küng at the Institute for Ecumenical Research founded by Küng in 1963/64 . In 1969 he completed his habilitation and began to teach. In 1972 he graduated as Dr. phil. with a work on the idea of ​​God in Sartre .

From 1974 until his retirement in 2002 he was professor of systematic theology at the Philosophical Faculty of Saarland University . Since 1989 he has been chairman of the International Pauline Society . Since 1993 he has been a full member of the Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea .

At the Ecumenical Church Congress in Berlin in 2003, he celebrated a service according to the Roman Catholic rite and explicitly invited all those present to communion. Therefore, he was suspended as a priest in 2003, and in 2006 his license to teach, the “ Nihil obstat ”, was revoked.

In 2010 he resigned from the Church as a corporation under public law after years of dispute with the hierarchs of the Catholic Church. He emphasized that "of course" but still belong to the religious community of the Catholic Church.

Positions

theology

Hasenhüttl wrote in 1979 in his book Kritische Dogmatik that belief should never claim to be an eternally valid objective truth . In 2001 his book Glaube ohne Mythos was published , in which he argues that God shows himself in love between people. It is of secondary importance whether Jesus lived and the Eucharist is a real symbol for Jesus Christ, as it were a “heavenly image”.

Hasenhüttl understands God as an event of love in an interpersonal context and calls for a paradigm shift from the juridical to the charismatic . According to his statement, “Jesus himself did not found a church . He therefore gave it no institutional structure a fortiori ; a hierarchical principle has nothing to do with the nature of the church. "

Hasenhüttl was accused by the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , he represented “erroneous and untenable doctrinal opinions” and interpreted the Catholic teaching in an “improper and absurd way”. Hasenhüttl's attitude was criticized by Leo Scheffczyk and Joseph Ratzinger . Ratzinger said that Hasenhüttl wrote a dogmatics “in which he tells us that God does not exist as a reality that is in itself, but is merely an encounter event, [...] a certain kind of humanity”, that is “not Catholic ".

Intercommunion with non-Catholics

On the sidelines of the ecumenical church convention in Berlin in 2003 , Hasenhüttl celebrated a so-called “Communion service according to the Catholic rite ” in the Protestant Gethsemane Church , where he explicitly invited Protestants and non- Catholics to communion. About 2000 people were present at this liturgy , which was prepared by the ecumenical network “ Initiative Church from Below ”, the popular church movement “ We are Church ” and the Protestant parish Prenzlauer Berg-Nord. The service was not part of the official Kirchentag.

Because of this intercelebration , he was suspended from the priesthood on July 17, 2003 by the then Bishop of Trier, Reinhard Marx . Marx threatened Hasenhüttl with withdrawing his church license to teach if he did not give in. In response, Hasenhüttl accused the bishops of demanding " Eichmann obedience". As a result, Federal President Rau expressed himself , who "as a Protestant Christian" criticized the attitude of the Catholic Church to the "Last Supper Controversy".

Hasenhüttl immediately lodged a complaint against the suspension, which is why it was temporarily suspended on July 21, 2003 pending the decision of the Holy See . On June 3, 2004, the suspension was confirmed by decree by the Holy See . However, Hasenhüttl put an appeal one had the suspensive effect.

On November 12, 2004, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith rejected his appeal. The decision referred to the "various episodes which the complainant cited in his defense" and which, in the opinion of the Congregation, "would not justify his behavior", and also opposed "some untenable doctrines [...] expressly contained in the complaint are or are implicitly presupposed ”and which would not justify Hasenhüttl's behavior, but would even burden him in a“ fundamentally doctrinal way ”. With a decree of January 2, 2006, Bishop Marx withdrew Hasenhüttl's permission to teach.

At the same time as the Ecumenical Church Congress 2010 in Munich , he celebrated another ecumenical Lord's Supper there despite the ban . The service took place together with the Protestant pastor Eberhard Braun in the completely overcrowded lecture hall 1180 of the Technical University of Munich because no Catholic or Protestant church in Munich was willing to provide a room. The Lord's Supper took place according to the slightly changed so-called Lima liturgy .

Attitude to cases of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church

Hasenhüttl makes the retired Pope Benedict XVI. directly responsible for the systematic cover-up of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church . As prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , Joseph Ratzinger - later Pope Benedict XVI. - In a letter dated May 18, 2001 , all bishops were forbidden from publicizing cases of abuse under threat of canonical penalties. That is why he is the main person responsible for the cover-up. Hasenhüttl particularly criticizes the pastoral letter from Benedict XVI. on sexual abuse in the Church of Ireland. On the one hand, because he only focuses on the Irish Church and because Pope Benedict wants to "relativize" the acts by writing that the abuse cases are not a purely church problem. As the self-understood guardian of morality, the church could not argue that way. "If abuse occurs in families, it is no justification that it exists in the Church."

Resignation from the church in 2010

Hasenhüttl resigned from the Roman Catholic Church on September 28, 2010 at the Saarbrücken registry office. In a letter to Bishop Stephan Ackermann , he stated that he was leaving the church “as a corporation under public law”, but not the “Catholic Church as a religious community”. He is "only welcome as a church taxpayer" and a "real ecumenism" is not sought by this institution. If it turns out that the Catholic Church as an institution is fully oriented towards Jesus' good news, he will be happy to look for his place in it again.

Statements of the Catholic Church

Bishop Marx justified the suspension of the priestly service and the announcement of the withdrawal of the license to teach with his special duty to stand up for the unity of the Catholic Church and to take care of it.

It is my responsibility to intervene where the order of the church is obviously and demonstratively violated. The church is not an arbitrary system in which everyone can set the rules according to their personal convictions. It therefore has a common order that serves unity and is committed to common faith. The church is more than a civil society; on the one hand, it has orders that are established by Christ himself and cannot be changed by the church, for example the sacraments and the episcopate, but there are also human stipulations that are common Way should serve. Here the Pope and the bishops in particular have a duty as legislators. The priests, as ministers of the church, cannot interpret this order at will and set up their own order. In this way the unity of the Church is destroyed and new rifts are opened.

Prof. Manfred Scheuer , Professor of Dogmatics and the History of Dogmas at the Theological Faculty Trier, explained the background of the Catholic teaching from 1 Cor 10, 16f and the Second Vatican Council (Liturgy Constitution 7).

Prof. Peter Krämer , holder of the chair for canon law at the theological faculty in Trier, referred to the ecclesiastical code of 1983 (p. 844 §1) regarding intercommunion and loyalty (p. 273).

Works

  • The practice of faith. An encounter with Rudolf Bultmann from a Catholic understanding of faith . Essen 1963 (diss.).
  • History and existential thinking . Wiesbaden 1965.
  • The unknown god? Einsiedeln 1965.
  • Charisma. Order principle of the church . Freiburg u. a. 1969.
  • Does modern exegesis endanger the faith? Graz / Cologne 1970.
  • Being there for eachother. Focal points of modern religious problems . Freiburg 1971.
  • God without God. A dialogue with Jean-Paul Sartre . Graz 1972.
  • Christianity without a church . Aschaffenburg 1973.
  • Church free of domination. Socio-theological foundation . Düsseldorf 1974.
  • Forms of church heresy coping (with Josef Nolte). Düsseldorf 1976.
  • Critical dogmatics . Graz 1979.
  • Introduction to the doctrine of God . Darmstadt 1980.
  • Freedom in chains. The chance of liberation theology . An experience report . Olten 1985.
  • Open your eyes. Considerations for all weeks of the year . Munich 1990.
  • I am black and beautiful. The theological awakening of Black Africa . Darmstadt 1991.
  • Belief without myth , 2 volumes. Mainz 2001.
    • Volume 1: Revelation - Jesus Christ - God .
    • Volume 2: People - Faith Community - Symbolic Actions - Future .
  • Ecumenical hospitality. A taboo is broken . Stuttgart 2006.
  • Christians against Christians. The quarrel about the communion together . Stuttgart 2010.
  • Faith without thinking prohibitions. For a humane religion. Darmstadt 2012.
  • Human dignity can be touched - in politics and religion. Alsdorf 2018.

literature

Web links

controversy

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Daniel Kirch: Saarbrücker theologian Hasenhüttl has resigned from the Catholic Church . ( Memento from February 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) In: Saarbrücker Zeitung , November 16, 2010, accessed on November 16, 2016.
  2. ↑ a b Theologian Hasenhüttl resigns from the Catholic Church . Zeit Online , November 16, 2010, accessed November 16, 2016.
  3. ↑ a b Curriculum vitae on Hasenhüttl's website at Saarland University, as of September 3, 2015, accessed on November 16, 2016.
  4. ↑ Gotthold Hasenhüttl: Wording of the resignation declaration and the letter to Bishop Ackermann on Hasenhüttl's website at Saarland University, November 16, 2010.
  5. ↑ Matthias Stolz: No and amen . Die Zeit 4/2006, January 19, 2006, accessed on November 16, 2016.
  6. ↑ Power the Church . Platform “We are Church”, Munich 1998, p. 37.
  7. ^ Communion for Brother Roger Schutz was not planned . Österreichischer Rundfunk , July 11, 2005, accessed on November 16, 2016.
  8. ↑ Cardinal Ratzinger criticizes Hasenhüttl . Österreichischer Rundfunk , July 24, 2003, accessed on November 16, 2016.
  9. ↑ Gernot Facius: They quarrel like Protestants . Die Welt , September 23, 2003, accessed November 16, 2016.
  10. ↑ Hasenhüttl holds an "unofficial" communion service. epd article on evangelisch.de , May 16, 2010, archived from the original on May 19, 2010 ; accessed on November 16, 2016 .
  11. ↑ Theologian gives Pope responsibility for cover-up - and speaks to Benedict's "pastoral letter". Neue Rundschau , March 2010, archived from the original on September 9, 2012 ; accessed on November 16, 2016 . Gotthold Hasenhüttl: Sexual Abuse in the Roman Catholic Church - a Symptom? Gotthold Hasenhüttl's website at Saarland University, accessed on November 16, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Gotthold Hasenhüttl suspended. Retrieved July 21, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Gotthold Hasenhüttl suspended. Retrieved July 21, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Gotthold Hasenhüttl suspended. Retrieved July 21, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Gotthold Hasenhüttl suspended. Retrieved July 21, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Hasenhüttl, Gotthold
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hasenhüttl, Gotthold Nathan Ambrosius (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian Catholic priest, church critic
DATE OF BIRTH December 2, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Graz , Austria