Is the icy grip of Vatican authoritarianism starting to thaw in the waning days of the papacy of John Paul II? Statements by two of the highest Vatican officials, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of the Vatican's doctrinal commission and Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Secretary of State, suggest it may be so.

1. First Ratzinger reversed his earlier opposition and indicated that the grassroots We Are Church (WAC) movement is an acceptable participant for church dialogue in Austria. He wrote to the Austrian bishops' conference March 7 that, "in principle, there are no objections to the carefully circumscribed participation of members of the We Are Church group" in the church "Dialogue for Austria" -- an assembly in October to bridge serious differences within the Austrian church. All the Austrian bishops wanted WAC included -- except archconservative Kurt Krenn of St. Pölten, who had denounced WAC to Ratzinger.

WAC in Austria is the original group to circulate a We Are Church petition or referendum calling for the equality of all church members, the ordination of women and married men, easing the discipline of priestly celibacy, and lay consultation in the selection of bishops. It was signed by nearly 500,000 of Austria's 1.2 million active Catholics, and quickly spread to Germany and then across Europe, North America and other continents.

Only last June, in two letters to the Austrian bishops, Ratzinger said the demands of the WAC movement are "partly not compatible with Catholic doctrine" and "in flagrant opposition to church discipline." He called on the bishops to "take adequate means to hinder the active participation of the faithful, and in particular of the priests," in the WAC movement. The latest Ratzinger letter still finds some of WAC's positions out of sync with church teaching and discipline, but pointedly avoids Krenn's strident claims that they are heretical. The major daily newspapers in Vienna hailed the letter as "a hopeful sign that the forces of moderation are beginning to reassert themselves" and "a defeat for Kurt Krenn." They also quoted retired Cardinal Franz Koenig, a progressive hero since Vatican II, that the hierarchy is not the whole church, and that broad dialogue is essential.

2. Cardinal Sodano astonished the worldwide Church by praising progressive Swiss theologian Hans Küng in a lecture to journalists March 24. Küng was banned as a Catholic theologian by the Vatican in 1979, after his book refuting papal infallibility. He is an outspoken critic of Vatican authoritarian rule under John Paul II. Yet Sodano, the top Vatican official after the Pope himself, said Küng had shown "faith in the river of goodness and mercy, of solidarity and willingness to help which springs from the gospels and runs through 2,000 years of Christian history."

Küng, who keynoted CTA's national conference in 1997, called Sodano's talk a "sign of hope for the church," and "a signal that, either now or in the future, we can have an orthodox papacy without excommunicating and silencing theologians."