The Vatican has quietly decided to take no action against Schillebeeckx, at least for now, thus signaling that there is still some lee way for liberal thinking in the era of Pope John Paul II.

Rome drops a tricky case

In two pre-Christmas shots heard round the theological world, the Vatican in 1979 summoned Father Edward Schillebeeckx from The Netherlands for questioning as a possible heretic and then declared that West Germany’s Father Hans Küng had no license to practice as a “Catholic” theologian. Since…