Hans Kung Quotes

The Church is or should go back to being a community of God's people, and priests, pastors and bishops, who have the care of souls, are at the service of the people of God.

Priests, Bishops, and Popes … are neither different from other Christians nor superior to them.

Crown and cloth maken no priest, nor emperor's bishop with his words, but power that Christ giveth; and thus by life have been priests known.

The Church of Christ is constituted in two orders, the clergy and the people, the one having the care of the Church that all may be ruled for the salvation of souls; the other contains kings, princes, and nobles who have to carry on secular government that all things may lead to the peace and unity of the Church.

Meanwhile the Church more and more provided for the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, by practically chaining His influence to the hierarchy and the sacraments.

It is a thoroughly anti-christian doctrine that the Spirit of God, and therefore the life and governing power of the Church, resides in the ministry, to the exclusion of the people.

My church is in the detention facilities where I preside and celebrate the Eucharist. To me that's the church. That's the people of God.

In order to the existence of such a ministry in the Church, there is requisite an authority received from God, and consequently power and knowledge imparted from God for the exercise of such ministry; and where a man possesses these, although the bishop has not laid hands upon him according to his traditions, God has Himself appointed him.

The Church is the new creation, it is life and joy, it is the sacramental fellowship in which we share the ultimate purpose of God, made real for us now in our hearing the Word and sharing the Sacrament.

There would never have been an infidel had there never been a priest.

There are others (I am speaking of my own order) who enter the priesthood and diaconate in order that they may visit women with greater freedom.

The greatest blessings of mankind are the gifts of God … —the priesthood and the imperial authority. The priesthood ministers to things divine; the imperial authority is set over, and shows diligence in, things human …. Both adorn the life of man.

We, each and all, bishops, priests, and deacons of the holy Roman church, congregated in the city of Pisa for the purpose of ending the schism and of restoring the unity of the church, on our word of honor promise God, the holy Roman church, and this holy council now collected here for the aforesaid purpose, that, if any one of us is elected pope, he shall continue the present council and not dissolve it, nor, so far as is in his power, permit it to be dissolved until, through it and with its advice, a proper, reasonable, and sufficient reformation of the universal church in its head and in its members shall have been accomplished.

I would distinguish, and the Church distinguishes, between orientation and action. We have many priests who have lived their lives in keeping with the absolute value of celibacy.

If anyone says that the holy Catholic Church was not moved by just causes and reasons that laymen and clerics when not consecrating should communicate under the form of bread only, or has erred in this, let him be anathema [excommunicated.]

It does not befit a bishop or a presbyter to go into the affairs of the people's government, but to be always engaged in the affairs of the Church

The Christians of this century (the seventh) seem by their superstitious doctrine to exclude from the kingdom of heaven such as had not contributed by their offerings to augment the riches of the clergy or the church

I'm theologically in line with the Roman Catholic Church. I believe in the authority of the church, but I also have tremendous respect for my brothers and sisters in other Christian faiths.

you [priests] are called 'another Christ.'

The church ... is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state.

I, a priest of Christ,... do command ye, most foul spirits, who do stir up these clouds,... that ye depart from them, and disperse yourselves into wild and untilled places, that ye may be no longer able to harm men or animals or fruits or herbs, or whatsoever is designed for human use.

The role of the Church of England … has always been to hold in trust for the nation the Christian faith, and values which in the past created the nation and to try to […] act as an interpreter and bridge between many different people looking for a faith and spirituality and not doing that exclusively. We do it these days in partnership with other churches, but the Church of England has always had a particular responsibility for this role.

There has never been a day in which Catholics, in the communion of the Church and uncensored by her, have not held slaves.

The civil Government, though bereft of everything like an associated hierarchy, possesses the requisite stability, and performs its functions with complete success, whilst the number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people, have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the State

The greatest blessings granted to human beings by God's ultimate grace are priesthood and kingdom.