Pope Meets With Dissident Theologian

Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI met with one of his fiercest critics, the dissident Swiss theologian Hans Kung, and the two had a "friendly" theological discussion, the Vatican said Monday.

The meeting occurred Saturday, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a statement.

"The two agreed that there was no sense in entering, within the confines of the meeting, in a dispute surrounding the persistent doctrinal questions between Hans Kung and the magisterium of the Catholic Church," the statement said.

The two did, however, discuss other theological issues, including the question of global ethics and the dialogue between scientific reason and Christian faith, Navarro-Valls said.

Kung was stripped of the right to teach theology at the University of Tuebingen in Germany in 1979 after challenging Roman Catholic doctrines such as papal infallibility.