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Published
by Catholic
News Service,
October 25, 2005
Cardinal
says Vatican, Orthodox reps to meet to set
dialogue agenda
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By
Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
ROME (CNS) -- Orthodox and Vatican representatives
will meet in Rome in early December to establish a
theme and agenda for the first meeting of the
churches' international theological commission in
more than five years, said Cardinal Walter Kasper.
The cardinal, president of the Pontifical Council
for Promoting Christian Unity, said "the ice
is thawing" in relations with the Russian
Orthodox Church and is proceeding well with 14
other Orthodox churches.
Cardinal Kasper spoke Oct. 24 to reporters at
Rome's foreign press club about the Catholic
Church's commitment to dialogue as well as about
topics raised during the Oct. 2-23 Synod of
Bishops on the Eucharist.
While pointing to progress in discussions with the
Russian Orthodox, Cardinal Kasper said it is
unlikely that Pope Benedict XVI and Russian
Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow will meet
within the next year.
Although such a meeting was "the desire"
of Pope John Paul II and is "the hope"
of Pope Benedict, the cardinal said he saw no
quick way to meet the conditions set by the
Russian Orthodox for a meeting.
The Russian Orthodox repeatedly have said that the
Catholic Church must stop proselytizing in lands
traditionally part of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Catholic Church has said it rejects
proselytism, which it understands as enticing or
coercing people away from their church. However,
the Vatican says respect for an individual's
freedom of conscience means that those who freely
approach the church must be assisted.
Cardinal Kasper said he does not see the Catholic
and Russian Orthodox churches resolving their
differences anytime soon.
However, he said, the Russian Orthodox have named
a representative to the Joint International
Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the
Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. The
commission has not met since a session in July
2000 faltered over questions regarding the Eastern
Catholic churches, which share liturgical and
spiritual traditions with the Orthodox but are in
union with Rome.
The December meeting of the dialogue's
coordinating committee should set the stage for a
full meeting of the commission in mid-2006. The
Serbian Orthodox Church has offered to host the
gathering.
Cardinal Kasper also was asked about issues raised
at the Synod of Bishops: Communion for divorced
and civilly remarried Catholics and the
possibility of ordaining married men to the
priesthood in the Latin-rite church.
The cardinal said the synod discussion about the
pastoral care of Catholics who cannot receive the
Eucharist because of irregular marriage situations
"was much more open than previously."
Although the propositions the synod gave to Pope
Benedict do not call for a change in church
policy, the propositions "are not the final
result" because the pope still must consider
whether he wants to address the issue in a post-synodal
document, the cardinal said.
"I think the problem of the divorced and
remarried is very much a burning question,"
especially in the West, he said. "Every
bishop in the Western countries knows this is a
serious problem, so I cannot imagine the
discussion is closed."
The cardinal said Pope Benedict, speaking to
priests in northern Italy in July, indicated he
wanted further study on the issue.
In 1993, when Cardinal Kasper was a diocesan
bishop in Germany, he and two other bishops issued
pastoral instructions telling priests they could
give Communion to divorced and civilly remarried
Catholics who were convinced their first marriages
were invalid even if they had not received an
annulment of that union.
At the same time, the three German bishops
affirmed church teaching that a validly
contracted, celebrated and consummated marriage
could not be annulled.
A year later, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger,
prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith, issued a document insisting that the
divorced must obtain an annulment before they
could remarry with the church's blessing and
receive Communion.
As for the synod's discussion of the possibility
of ordaining married "viri probati," men
of proven virtue, Cardinal Kasper said he is
convinced that "celibacy is a gift" that
the church must maintain.
However, he said, the church must ask itself
whether, "in certain cases, it would be
better also to have the so-called 'viri probati'"
to meet the needs of Catholics where there is a
shortage of priests.
The ordination of married men, he said, is "a
hypothesis that was and remains open," but
which would have to be accomplished "without
abandoning celibacy."
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