Vienna (kath.net/KAP) Pope Benedict XVI is dealing with the reconciliation of the Society of St. Pius X as a theologian and one who knows Church history. "Because he knew that till now every Council had a schism in its wake, it is for him a consideration , in avoiding anything, that he would not want this to repeat where he is responsible": That was quoted from the President of the Vatican Council for Ecumenism, Cardinal Kurt Koch, at a press conference in Vienna on Tuesday. "Now it falls upon the Society to answer definitively," says Koch. This touches specifically on their position on the Council.
The two answers of November and March which were known to him were considered insufficient: the most recent of the 17th of November is "not known to him." What is clear, however, is that it won't be enough "if they reject 65 percent of the Council". The second Vatican Council, which opened 50 years ago and in which the present Pope had functioned as an adviser, forms for the Swiss born President for Unity the great test in ecumenism. But what is clear after 50 years, "is that the unity needed more time than we thought then".
Today there is an uncertainty over the goal. Many protestant leaders only want that "all church properties are recognized as Church". A deeper unity in this case then falls from view.
An important voice, namely the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, is quick to remind that the forms of consensus seeking in important questions of life like peace or environment would not be everything. Patriarch Bartholomeos is one who seeks after a true unity of the Church. But he also stresses: "We need time". One has "lived through 1,000 years apart". Many points of divergence are not even theological, rather much more of a historical and cultural type, which never the less don't have easy solutions.
Open Problems in Ecumenical Dialog
In view of the barriers to unity, Cardinal Koch, noted "the Office of the Papacy", which inn relation to Orthodoxy presents even more problems than with the churches of the Reformation. Because Orthodoxy has theological arguments against the Papal Office, because it is a jurisdiction without sacramentality. Evangelical theologians and some Catholics like Hans Kung seek on the other hand after a primacy of honor similar to the Anglican Primate. This is precisely the present breaking test within the Anglican Communion but is also a good example for this, that such a symbolic office functions "only in good weather".
Fundamentally all of the more deeper running steps toward unity need a first gesture of mutual forgiveness and reconciliation, said Cardinal Koch. One fundamental problem is that most Christians don't see division as a sin and a scandal. In dialog meetings with Orthodox representatives this is painfully evident that the Orthodox side will not offer small gestures of reconciliation like a kiss of peace because these in Orthodoxy are a precondition for Eucharistic communion.
Considerations of the Reformation with Offers of Reconciliation?
Even the upcoming "Reformation Jubilee" will only bring ecumenical progress, "if it is bound with a mutual recognition of wrongdoing". As an archetype for reconciliation is Pope John Paul II in the Holy Year of 2,000; "I hope that just that takes place in 2017".
One shouldn't speak then of a 'Jubilee' but of a Reformation Memorial, because we couldn't celebrate a sin". It is also known to him that this expression has earned him the description of "anti-ecumenicist". If, however, 2017 involves this common understanding, then there will be on his side openness to the question, "what greater signs could be set".
Koch went also addressed a widely disseminated falsehood, where Benedict XVI. gives more priority to ecumenism with the Orthodox than the Reform churches. This is historically false because Joseph Ratzinger has already worked a great deal in Reform theology.
It is also true that Ratzinger had been the one who saved the 1998 Augsburg "Common Declaration on Justification" (1999), a milestone of Ecumenism between Catholics and Lutherans. The current Pope is since traveled to Regesburg since 1998, where he participated with the assembled Lutheran church worldwide. The result was approved and highlighted in a document on understanding in the clarity of the unmistakable and fundamental truth of the teaching on justification. It was still further stressed that the mutual doctrinal condemnations of the 16th century do not concern today's Church. In this sense it is pointedly clear that people are justified and saved by grace alone.
Cardinal Koch expressed himself in a press conference also on relations to Judaism, especially on missionary work with the Jews. Catholic belief is that the bond with the people of Israel is "an important", at the same time is however "become something new with Jesus" . How that will happen, is not something easily addressed "in a half minute during a press conference". Because of this complex interaction the Church looks upon it as an explicit mission to the Jews. The individual witnesses of Christians to their faith is however a requirement for Evangelism in that which also depends on the belief that the Gospel must be preached to the Jews.
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