Posted on 01/19/2024 8:52:01 PM PST by ebb tide
Vatican City - Within the Catholic Church, the Vatican's declaration of blessing has met with great approval and fierce rejection. However, Cardinal Kurt Koch also sees implications for ecumenical dialogue. Published on 18.01.2024 at 13:16 –
Curia Cardinal Kurt Koch says he has received enquiries from other Christian churches about the Vatican's declaration on the blessing of people in same-sex partnerships and remarried couples. He has received "some negative reactions from the ecumenical world about 'Fiducia supplicans'", said the Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity in an interview with "Vatican News" (Wednesday). Oriental Orthodox Christians, for example, had asked to speak about the declaration at a meeting in Rome next week, the Swiss cardinal said.
Koch also sees the impact of the Vatican declaration on ecumenism: "I believe that we need to rethink ecumenical dialogue: What is blessing, and what is the relationship between doctrine and pastoral care?" These questions have now become urgent and need to be discussed. The cardinal answered the question of whether pastoral motives could justify Eucharistic hospitality in a similar way to "fiducia supplicans" with a negative answer. Transferring this pastoral perspective to the question of Eucharistic communion was not appropriate.
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Ecumenism with the Orthodox churches suffers from the tensions that exist within Orthodoxy, the Curia Cardinal continued. "Last June, for example, we had the plenary meeting of the Commission in Alexandria, with great hospitality from the Patriarch - but four Orthodox churches were not present: Russia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Antioch." This situation makes ecumenical dialogue with Orthodoxy a challenge: "On the one hand, we do not want to and cannot intervene in internal Orthodox tensions. On the other hand, neutrality does not mean indifference, but we are of course affected by it."
With regard to ecumenism with the Protestant and Reformed churches, Koch spoke out in favour of reviving the spiritual dimension of the dialogue. At the beginning of the ecumenical movement there was a prayer movement: "Pope Benedict XVI once expressed this with the beautiful image that the ecumenical ship would never have set sail on the high seas if it had not been driven by a current of prayer." In the Gospel of John, Jesus does not command the unity of his disciples, but prays for it. "And if Jesus prayed for the unity of his disciples, what better thing can we do?" said the cardinal. Koch made his comments on the occasion of the World Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which begins on Thursday and will be concluded by Pope Francis on 25 January with the celebration of Vespers. (rom)
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