Pope Can Err, Says Disciplined U.S. Theologian

Tensions will continue to grow in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, at least in part because church leaders have no good way to protest when they disagree with the Vatican, embattled theologian Charles Curran said Tuesday.

True collegiality of bishops, whose number includes the Pope as bishop of Rome, “will never be a reality until individual bishops can publicly express disagreement with the Pope on certain issues, even those belonging to the non-infallible church teaching on faith and morals,” he said.

The Pope, Curran said, “is the head of the church as well as its symbol of unity, but the Pope can be wrong.”

May Lose Position

Curran, a priest, has been the subject of a Vatican order revoking his authority to teach as a Catholic theologian, a penalty that theoretically will cost him his position as professor of moral theology at Catholic University of America.

He is appealing through university procedures while on a sabbatical, which ends Dec. 31.

Curran made his comments in a lecture at a meeting sponsored by several student groups at the university.

He has come under Vatican fire for what officials in Rome see as too liberal positions on such sexual issues as birth control, divorce and homosexuality--examples of permissiveness that Vatican officials believe to be too widespread in the United States.

Curran did say in his lecture that, although the church can learn from U.S. emphasis on freedom, “there are characteristics of the United States ethos and culture which need to be criticized in light of the gospel.” He mentioned matters of economic and social justice rather than sexual issues.