Eugene Drewermann.

In Montreal the Catholic Faculty of Theology at the University of Montreal received the German heretical theologian Eugene Drewermann last October. Father Jean-Marc Charron, dean of the faculty, said that they were greatly honoured in witnessing the renowned theologian's first North American lecture.

Drewermann is a suspended (a divinis) Catholic priest (meaning that he cannot exercise his priesthood anywhere in the world). He wants a Church without dogmas, argues that original sin is an invention of the Church, and that baptism and redemption are redundant. Drawing much on Freudian psychoanalysis, he believes that Sigmund Freud was a far more faithful disciple of Christ than Catholic priests. For Drewermann psychoanalysis is more important than faith. He thinks that the "Roman" Church has invented dogmas and rules to control souls and, consequently, he attacks everything: the Sacrament of Confession, the physical resurrection of Christ, marital chastity, celibacy, Humanae vitae, the Catechism, etc.

Professor Jean-Claude Petit of the Faculty, and laicized priest Gregory Baum now retired from McGill University's Religious Studies department, praised Drewermann to the skies, calling him a "religious genius," that "great believer," "that profound theologian." (Bulletin, Campagne Quebec Vie, April 1998).