Cardinal Kurt Koch is the Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity. “The biggest challenge,” he said, “is that so many Christians no longer seek the unity. Instead, many are resigned to the fact that we have a multitude of churches and church communities.”
The unity of the Church is still exposed to numerous dangers today. Time and time again, difficulties also arise in dialogue within the Christian community.
Not only is the war between Russia and Ukraine currently straining the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, but the dialogue with Coptic Christians has also become more difficult since representatives of the Coptic Orthodox Church announced in March that they decided to suspend theological dialogue with the Catholic Church. This decision goes back to the publication of Fiducia Supplicans, a document in which the Vatican states that, under certain conditions, couples in same sex and irregular relationships may also be blessed.
A lot of work to do now for the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity. But Father Hyacinthe Destivelle, who works for the dicastery, is hopeful.
Fr. Hyacinthe Destivelle is the Director of the Institute for Ecumenical Studies of the Angelicum. In this light, he said, “I am, myself, personally convinced that the dialogue with the Coptic Church, which is thus a part of this multilateral bilateral commission, will continue. And I am convinced that we will continue on this path, even if from time to time we need to take breaks. But we are in the Easter period, and I really like the expression ‘Felix culpa’ in the Easter Exsultet, sometimes it takes a ‘Felix Culpa’ for us to be able to move forward.”
The head of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity is Cardinal Kurt Koch. Koch has been the Vatican’s “Ecumenical Minister” for 14 years. To honor the cardinal’s decades of service, the Roman Institute of the Görres Society organized a three-day symposium in Rome on “Unity and Uniqueness,” in cooperation with the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Pontifical Gregorian University.
Professor Karl-Heinz Menke, a member of the International Theological Commission from 2014 to 2019, explained, “In Germany, but also gradually in many other parts of the world, we are currently experiencing a strong polarization between two directions of how we should live as Christians. Some believe that the Church must be freed from its captivity to a world view of the past by adapting to the mainstream of so-called ‘modernity.’ And the others believe — and I am one of them — that we can only get out of the mess by returning to the Gospel and contributing to the unity of the Church.”
Five years ago, Cardinal Koch said in an interview that divisions within the Church must be avoided. “The Catholic way,” he said, “is to remain under one roof, under the roof of the papacy, the universal Church. That is also the reason why there are so many tensions, so many conflicts in the Catholic Church. It is easier to split off and found a new church. I think the Catholic way is the better way, and I hope that the Catholic Church will remain on this Catholic path within the universal Church as a whole. In my opinion, the other way has no future.”
Today, as well, Cardinal Koch continues to look to the future of ecumenism with hope, but soberly and rationally.
Incidentally, Cardinal Koch’s episcopal motto is borrowed from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Colossians and reads: “Ut sit in omnibus Christus primatum tenens — That Christ be before everything.”
This motto not only summarizes the work of the Vatican’s “Ecumenical Minister” to date, but also sets the course for the future.
Adapted by Jacob Stein
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