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22
July 2010 | 10-0509 |
Vatican
cardinal says lack of shared communion his greatest regret
Anli Serfontein
|
Stuttgart, Germany (ENI). The recently retired senior Vatican
official responsible for ecumenical affairs has said his biggest regret during
his tenure in Rome is that he did not achieve an agreement on a common
communion with Protestants.
"Today, there is a lot of convergence. So, we got closer to each other but
we could not achieve the final breakthrough. I regret it very much but you
cannot push the issue," said Cardinal Walter Kasper, who retired on 1 July
as president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
"The main thing that I did not achieve is the sharing of Holy
Communion," Kasper told ENInews in an interview in Stuttgart, while
attending, as a special guest, the 20-27 July assembly of the Lutheran World
Federation.
Kasper, now 77, became president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting
Christian Unity in 2001; he had served the previous two years as its secretary.
Originally from Germany, Kasper is a former professor of theology in Münster
and Tübingen, and was bishop of Stuttgart from 1989 to 1999.
Soon after he became secretary of the Vatican's unity council, Kasper took part
in the signing on 31 October 1999, Reformation Day, of the "Joint
Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification" between the Roman Catholic
Church and the LWF. This aimed to overcome condemnations, dating back to the
16th century, between the papacy and reformer Martin Luther and his followers.
However, sharing in the Eucharist, or Holy Communion, the central Christian
sacrament that commemorates Jesus' last meal with his disciples, remains a
point of contention. Catholic teaching prevents Protestants in most situations
receiving communion from Catholic priests, and says Catholics should not
receive communion in Protestant churches.
"Of course, I regret it very much because I know the concrete problems in
families, and between good friends and partners," said Kasper. "I
know what these problems are but I cannot jump over the whole existing
doctrine. It is a problem that still exists but I think we also achieved some
things. Maybe not consensus but convergence."
Kasper's words echoed
those of LWF president Mark S. Hanson from the United States, who earlier in
the day told a media conference that the Lutheran commitment to ecumenism will
not end until Lutherans can share the Eucharist with other churches.
"We must continue the dialogue about theological issues that still prevent
us from communing together," said Hanson.
The LWF president had been asked if he could envisage a day when a married
couple in which one partner was a Catholic and the other a Lutheran could share
in communion together with the blessing of both churches. Hanson responded by
saying that it is the lay people of the churches who are driving and sustaining
these conversations, and he acknowledged the "grassroots ecumenism"
that is alive among lay people.
"If Roman Catholics and Lutherans can feed the hungry together, wouldn't
it be good if they could be fed at the Lord's Table together?" Hanson
said.
Kasper said in an
address to LWF assembly delegates, "In the last years, we have been
harvesting the fruit of the dialogue. I was more than surprised to see such a
rich harvest, and that we have achieved much more than we could even dream
before. There has been no ecumenical winter."
Still, he acknowledged that there is an unfinished agenda and that this should
be the reason to continue the search for unity. "We can no longer afford to stick to our
differences," Kasper told delegates.
In his ENInews interview, the former Vatican official stressed that
dialogue and debate should continue. "I think for both sides it is the
same thing. You must be patient, and you must be impatient at the same
time," he said with a smile.
Kasper explained that he thought it may have been easier for him to engage in
ecumenical discussions, since he had experienced division at first hand in the
land of the Reformation. In 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the
door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg, thus setting in train the breach with
the Catholic Church.
"The Reformation started in Germany. We are at the origin of the
Reformation, and therefore Reformation and relations with Lutheran Evangelical
people are a concern for us because it divided us for many centuries. It still
divides families today," Kasper said.
He noted that he had studied and later taught theology at German universities
that each had two theological faculties, one for Protestants and the other for
Catholics.
"So, ecumenical relations belonged to our life. One has many Protestant
friends. I was bishop in this diocese, which is half Protestant and half
Catholic," he said. "It is a normal reality for us, and I think this
helps us a lot to understand the other angle, and to understand the urgency to
work for unity and communion."
In an interview in November 2009 in Wittenberg, where Luther worked and lived,
Kasper noted, "We have learned a lot in the last 50 years. At the
university, I spent a lot of time teaching about Martin Luther, and I have
learned from that experience too."
In his Stuttgart
interview, Kasper acknowledged that some sections of the Catholic Church have
difficulties with such ecumenical developments but said he had the backing of
both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.
Looking back at what has been achieved in terms of ecumenical progress in the last
decade, Kasper said it would not have been possible without friendship with his
counterparts from other traditions. He said a deep friendship had developed
between him and the Rev. Ishmael Noko, the Zimbabwean-born LWF general
secretary.
"Personal friendship and personal relations are fundamental to ecumenical
work and for pastoral work because without personal relations, personal
friendships and trust you can do nothing; it is the basis of all. Then, when
you have friendship, if there is trust you can also speak about the differences
and you can also achieve good results," Kasper said.
Introducing Kasper to LWF assembly delegates in Stuttgart, Noko said, "You
embody in your soul the spirit of ecumenism. You have been an encourager, when
obstacles seemed insurmountable, and a truth teller."
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