wfn.org | Cardinal Kasper: Division of Churches Increasingly a Scandal

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

Cardinal Kasper: The Division of Churches "Increasingly Turning
into a Scandal before the World"
LWF Tenth Assembly Theme "For the Healing of the World" Has Great
Relevance

ROME, Italy/GENEVA, 14 July 2003 (LWI) - The division of
Christian churches is "increasingly turning into a scandal before
the world, not to mention the fact that it is also contrary to
the will of Jesus Christ," said Walter Cardinal Kasper, President
of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU)
in an interview with Lutheran World Information (LWI).

Everything possible must be done to find full community but also
to demonstrate more clearly the community that already exists.
"We have more things in common than things that separate us",
emphasized Kasper, who will lead the Roman Catholic Church
delegation to Tenth Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation
(LWF) in Winnipeg, Canada, 21-31 July 2003.

According to Kasper the theme of the Assembly "For the Healing of
the World" has great relevance. The world is not whole but rife
with war, violence, injustice and the North-South divide. But
even in the West "new chasms are opening up, and I believe that
it is the basic task of the Church to bring the message of
reconciliation and therefore of healing and peace to all people,"
stressed the PCPCU president.

Kasper said he was looking forward with great anticipation to the
Assembly in Winnipeg because, since the signing of the Joint
Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ) relations
between the Roman Catholic Church and the LWF as well as with
Lutheran churches have gained a new quality and intensity. "Many
friendly relations exist already," he stressed. He noted that the
signing of the Joint Declaration has substantially solved the
most important problem of the Reformation but there still remains
"a lot to do by way of reconciliation and healing between the
churches."

The PCPCU president considered it as extremely important that the
LWF and Roman Catholic Church had recently spoken with one voice
and strongly advocated peace in the world in the context of the
conflict in Iraq. "This seems to me to be an important common
witness. I hope that it will be a precedent and example for the
future," said Kasper. Joint actions strengthen the credibility of
the witness of the Christian churches.

Kasper spoke of joint action and joint witness in common issues
such as the quest for justice in the world and assistance to
people living with HIV/AIDS. There is probably also far-reaching
agreement in inter-religious dialogue. This kind of cooperation
also strengthens mutual trust and leads to a deeper understanding
of the questions "where sadly we are not yet fully united," he
said.

For the PCPCU president, the most important result following the
JDDJ signing on 31 October 1999 in Augsburg, Germany, was that
the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran communion were now
substantially in agreement about the essential content of the
Gospel. "This means that we can witness together in a world that
has become increasingly secularized, especially here in the
West." If possible the LWF Assembly in Winnipeg should be such a
joint witness, a common word to a largely secularized world which
is increasingly losing the human and Christian values, he noted.
Another positive consequence of the JDDJ signing is the fact that
Catholic majority churches, for example in Latin America, are
beginning to take the Lutheran minority churches seriously in
quite a new way.

Concerning the joint celebration of Holy Communion, or at least
the offer of eucharistic hospitality, Kasper stressed that the
JDDJ was a mile-stone but not yet the end of the road. For the
Roman Catholic Church the Joint Declaration was not a sufficient
reason yet to have joint Eucharist. He explained that there are
different understandings of ecclesiology and the ministry, apart
from some questions of eucharistic doctrine that have not yet
been sufficiently clarified although there was a growing
agreement about them between Lutherans and Catholics.

"For us Catholics, church fellowship and eucharistic communion
are one. We cannot meet in closest inner communion, which is the
meaning of the Eucharist, and then part again to go our different
ways into different churches. I can also put it differently: for
eucharistic fellowship, it is essential for us to be able to say
'Amen' at the end of the great eucharistic prayer. In the
Catholic liturgy the congregation answers with 'Amen,' which
means that they agree with what has happened and with what has
been said in the great prayer. And only those who can say 'Amen'
can also come up afterwards and put out their hands, otherwise
communion is not honest," said Kasper.

The PCPCU president said it is different according to Roman
Catholic understanding when in limited individual cases or under
certain circumstances of a secular or spiritual emergency,
non-Catholic Christians can be admitted to Holy Communion, to the
Eucharist. "In genuine cases of spiritual emergency, individual
pastoral solutions can be found, but unlike for Lutherans, a
general invitation does not seem possible yet for the Roman
Catholic Church." But this, said Kasper, "is no reason to sit
back and rest but rather a challenge to do our utmost to make
further progress."

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now
has 136 member churches in 76 countries representing over 61.7
million of the 65.4 million Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical and interfaith relations, theology, humanitarian
assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects
of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in
Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is LWF's information service.
Unless specifically noted, material presented does not represent
positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where
the dateline of a article contains the notation (LWI), the
material may be freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]

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