November 7, 2011

The Vatican's top ecumenist offered a frank assessment of recent ecumenical progress and future prospects in a Washington talk Nov. 3. Cardinal Kurt Koch, the Swiss-born president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said different types of divisions affect Catholic relations with the Orthodox churches and with those that were born from the Protestant Reformation, but both can be resolved with dialogue. He also criticized the "anti-Catholic attitude" displayed by some Pentecostals and said Catholics must resist a temptation to adopt the "sometimes problematic evangelical methods" of those churches. The cardinal spoke at The Catholic University of America before an audience of about 100 people, including Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, who serves as university chancellor. The title of his talk was "Fundamental Aspects of Ecumenism and Future Perspectives."

Cardinal Koch said progress toward Catholic-Orthodox unity became nearly " shipwrecked by the problem" of differences over papal primacy. Churches that arose from the Protestant Reformation, on the other hand, sometimes diverge from the Catholic Church on the handling of ethical questions, he said, mentioning homosexuality as a "fundamental problem" in particular between the Catholic and Anglican communities. Some Anglican churches, including the Episcopal Church in the U.S., have ordained openly gay priests and bishops. Cardinal Koch said Protestant churches have in the past generally agreed with the Catholic Church on ethical issues while disagreeing on matters of faith. "Today that has been turned on its head, and we can say that ethics divide but faith unites," he said.

Order of Corporate Reunion