Who'd a thunk it- I'm waiting to find someone with good commentary on the subject but all I have to say right now is that I read the Times article and obviously got pturbed by this-

Dr. Ratzinger and Dr. Küng first met in 1962 in Rome - two of the church's brightest young minds, both German speakers (Dr. Küng is Swiss) - in the excitement over modernizing the church in the Second Vatican Council.

Both were liberals, though Dr. Ratzinger turned to the right during the student unrest in Germany later in that decade. By various accounts, Dr. Küng concluded that Dr. Ratzinger had abandoned his idealism in the name of conformity to the church hierarchy, and bitterness grew after Dr. Küng was stripped of the right to teach theology at the University of Tübingen in 1979. Cardinal Ratzinger took the position that Dr. Küng's scholarship was no longer in accord with Roman Catholicism.

The rest of it I suppose is somewhat suitable for consumption. But just in case it doesn't suit your fancy... as it is a wonder to me that their conversation went beyond "God exists. Oh? You think so too?" I posted CNS's words on the subject.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI and Swiss-born theologian Father Hans Kung, who have known each other for almost 50 years, met Sept. 24 in Castel Gandolfo in what the Vatican described as a "friendly" encounter.

Joaquin Navarro-Valls, Vatican spokesman, said Sept. 26 that the pope and Father Kung "agreed that in the space of this meeting it made no sense to enter into an argument about the doctrinal questions remaining between Hans Kung and the magisterium of the church."