I think you're on to something. Hans Küng has spoken quite freely in the past few years; Tina Beattie wasn't turfed out of Cafod; and Charles Curran gave the first Fr. Robert Nugent Memorial Lecture in 2016 . . . Nugent having been called on the carpet along with Sr. Gramick by the Vatican for "exerc[izing their] apostolate without faithfully presenting the Church's teaching regarding the intrinsic evil of homosexual acts."