The president of the Pontifical Unity Council, Cardinal Walter Kasper, has countered representations that under Pope Benedict XVI. the Catholic Church's commitment to ecumenical dialogue is being slowed down. Since Monday, a conference at the Vatican has been dealing with the future of ecumenism.
Some dialogue partners are convinced that ecumenism has been "marginalized" in the Vatican, the German cardinal of the Curia criticized on Monday. He pointed out that the pope had taken stock of 40 years of ecumenical dialogue with "gratitude and appreciation". Kasper made his remarks at the start of a symposium entitled "Reaping the Fruits," in which representatives of the Catholic and Reformation churches are participating.Recently, the chairwoman of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Margot Kabmann, had expressed disappointment with the Pope's ecumenism course, triggering opposition from Cardinal Kasper. The Vatican Minister for Ecumenism called for a "new phase of dialogue". In the future, ecumenical conversation will be "less enthusiastic than it was in our youth, but more mature and no less courageous and hopeful". Since the Second Vatican Council, more has been achieved in ecumenism than some would have imagined 40 years ago. Now, he said, the task is to implement the results achieved in the churches. Ecumenism otherwise threatened to become an "expert matter" and move away from its roots. Elaboration of an ecumenical catechism For the future, the 76-year-old cardinal suggested the development of an ecumenical catechism. This could be worked out in cooperation with the dialogue partners, but would have to be approved by the competent Vatican authorities. On challenges in conversation with those emerging from the Reformation of 16. For the churches that emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century, Kasper counted the question of how the Christian message can be "translated and interpreted in the contemporary context". Thereby all churches are confronted with the trap of "fundamentalism and relativism".Kasper sees further differences between the Christian denominations in the image of man of the individual churches. In addition to the treatment of homosexuality, this also concerns questions of human rights, social justice, peace, bioethics and environmental protection. Christians must develop answers together in the face of a "profound anthropological crisis". According to Kasper, differences over the understanding of the church, its structure and the question of whether different structures can exist side by side in a united church pose further challenges to ecumenical dialogue. It also proves difficult to reach agreement on a common goal of ecumenism.
"Churches" or as "ecclesial communities." In this context, Kasper defended the Vatican's position that the Church only exists within the Catholic Church, but that "many important elements of the Church of Christ also exist outside the visible boundaries of the Catholic Church.". This teaching, reaffirmed in the 2000 Vatican paper "Dominus Iesus," emphasizes openness to other Christian denominations, Kasper said. The controversial document does not address Protestant churches as "churches," but only as "ecclesial communities".Participants in the symposium, which is also expected to produce a joint statement by Wednesday, include representatives of Lutheran, Anglican, Reformed and Methodist churches. Representatives from Germany include Theodor Dieter, a theology professor who heads the Lutheran World Federation's Ecumenical Institute in Strasbourg, and Walter Klaiber, a former bishop of the Evangelical Methodist Church.