11 notable Christian figures who died in 2021

Hans Küng – April 6, 2021

Hans Küng, a controversial Swiss Catholic theologian, professor, and priest, who was once censured by the late Pope John Paul II, died at age 93, at his home in Tübingen, Germany.

Küng participated in the Second Vatican Council and garnered controversy in the Catholic Church for his criticism of certain teachings, notably the concept of Papal Infallibility, which claims that when speaking on matters of faith the pontiff cannot err.

In December 1979, shortly after Pope John Paul II began his papal reign, Küng was censored by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for his polarizing views.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who had had his differences with Küng, nevertheless commended him for trying “to revive the dialogue between faith and the natural sciences and to assert, with regard to scientific thought, the reasonableness and necessity of the Gottesfrage (the question about God).”