Hans Küng: “This is the hour of the big lie”

Theologian Hans Küng says any conflict in Iraq is morally indefensible Keystone

Hans Küng is widely acclaimed as one of the most brilliant Catholic thinkers of his generation.

He was an adviser to the Second Vatican Council in 1962, but was refused permission by the Church to teach theology after the publication in 1979 of a book in which he questioned the infallibility of the Pope.

swissinfo: Is there a valid reason for going to war?

The moment of truth has already arrived. For all who have paid attention, this is the hour of a big lie – the lie that Saddam Hussein will attack the United States.

It is clearly the opposite. This is an attack on Iraq by the US, forbidden under UN law as well as on moral grounds.

Naturally, if a clique in the White House is determined to have a war then [churches] cannot prevent it. But I am convinced that the United States will pay dearly for [the situation] the Bush administration has created.

swissinfo-interview: Hansjörg Bolliger (translation: Jacob Greber)