ENIKasper_07_28

Vatican cardinal says lack of shared communion his greatest regret

By 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 July 1 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 here while attending, as a special guest, the July 20 - 27 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.

Soon after he became secretary, Kasper took part in the signing on Oct. 31 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.

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