Catholic ping!
The emotion is understandable; I don’t know about the specific allegations.
Ummm, I don’t think there were any Lefebvrists in existence in 1963.
Integrists yes.
If the only source of this is Karl Rahner’s letter, it’s just possible that Rahner exaggerated a tad—martyr complex.
But it’s also possible that the word was thrown at him and Ratzinger. But I’m wondering whether the letter mentions others and the journ-o-listes seized on Ratzinger in order to make a big splash.
Interesting. Ping for later.
Ratzinger deny the existence of hell? Never heard about that. Given that he once wrote about Christ’s descent into hell, that would illustrate a belief in it, yes?
Hans Urs von Balthasar didn’t exactly deny the existence of Hell, but he did say that we don’t know whether any human being has actually been condemned to go there. Perhaps they all get another chance. Perhaps Hell is empty.
I got very interested von Balthasar’s writings at one time. He wrote some very interesting stuff, and he criticized the liberal theologians in some good essays. But that idea about Hell, and a couple of other things, put me off him. I don’t see many people talking about him now. Too bad, because he was a brilliant theologian, but went a bit off the rails.
A lot of the people Ratzinger was associated with before the Second Vatican Council were modernists, and he was one of the key advisers in their discussions. But unlike von Balthazar and others, he remained orthodox, and I would say turned more conservative as the liberals made more and more trouble in the Church.
So I can see how someone might have doubted his orthodoxy at the time. He moved among liberals. But close examination of all his writings would prove them mistaken. He stayed orthodox.
bumpus ad summum
People who enjoy to see Catholics to argue among each other wish such pseudo-news to be spread...