Vatican City, Sep 25, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Pope Benedict has met dissident liberal theologian Hans Kueng in the latest move by the new pontiff to repair ties with prominent critics of the Vatican.
A Vatican statement on Monday said the meeting with Kueng, one of the Catholic Church's most prominent dissenters, was friendly and avoided "the persistent dispute over doctrinal questions" straining his ties to Rome since the late 1970s.
Kueng, a Swiss priest who has known the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger since 1957, said the German-born Pontiff had responded quickly to his request for a talk.
Kueng, 77, was banned from teaching Catholic theology 26 years ago by Benedict's predecessor Pope John Paul after he rejected papal infallibility. Tuebingen University kept him on as a professor of ecumenical theology.