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SOUL MATES: Pope John Paul II kisses a crucifix held by Ratzinger at an '04 Mass

The Turning Point
	How the upheavals of 1968 turned a Vatican II reformer into an ardent conservative
	By DAVID VAN BIEMA

Posted Sunday, April 24, 2005
In the wide, book-lined hallway on the ground floor of his home office in Tübingen, Germany, Hans Küng runs a finger down a dusty contents page until he finds a name: Joseph Ratzinger. Together with Küng, who had recruited Ratzinger to the theology department at the University of Tübingen in 1966, the young theologian was an enthusiastic participant in the reforms of the extraordinary Second Vatican Council. They dined frequently, and the introvert Ratzinger sometimes accepted rides in the extrovert Küng's Alfa Romeo. The article open in Küng's leathered hands is titled "Collegiality": it advocates greater cooperation between the Vatican and Catholic bishops. "That was Ratzinger," says Küng, slapping the book shut and placing it back on the shelf. "Back then we were on the same side."

They haven't been for a long, long time. For all those wondering whether Pope Benedict XVI has the capacity to change his tune in response to a new set of circumstances, a telling example might be found in the events that occurred not long after the halcyon period Küng so ruefully recalls. Ratzinger had been teaching at Tübingen for two years when the West German version of the 1968 student protests broke out—a bit like the U.S.'s but with less psychedelia and more Marx. The university became a hotbed of radical theology. Students distributed flyers calling the Cross a sadomasochistic artifact. They threw tomatoes and yanked away professors' microphones to disrupt lectures and force "dialogue." "Those were tough times," remembers Küng. "And Ratzinger did not digest them very well."

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