VATICAN CITY, NOV 10, 2004 (VIS) - Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, presided this morning at a press conference in the Holy See Press Office for the presentation of a three-day encounter organized by the council in Rocca di Papa near Rome to celebrate the 40th anniversary, on November 21, of the Vatican Council II Decree on Ecumenism "Unitatis redintegratio."
"What was the message and aim of that document?" asked the cardinal. "What effect has it had over the years. At what point are we today with ecumenism? What is the path we have yet to follow? What does the future hold in store for us?" Trying to answer these questions, he said, is the objective of the forthcoming conference.
Cardinal Kasper pointed to the first line of this Council document: "The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council. Christ the Lord founded one Church and one Church only." "Division," he said, "is opposed to the will of the Lord" and re-establishing unity is not a "secondary matter" but rather a priority for the entire Church, as it has been for the entire pontificate of Pope John Paul.
Since 1964, he said, "reception and ecumenical awareness in the Church has grown." And he listed events that have taken place over the years that would have been "unimaginable before the Council," such as Pope Paul VI's historic meeting with Patriarch Athenagoras, the 1999 joint Catholic-Lutheran Declaration on the doctrine of justification and the recent return to Moscow of the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan.
The cardinal admitted that "there are problems and delusions" and "new challenges as well: on the one hand a relativism and qualitative post modern pluralism" and "on the other, an aggressive fundamentalism exercised by both old and new sects with whom it is impossible to establish .. a marked and respectful dialogue. ... In several ecclesial communities we have noted a sort of doctrinal - and above all ethical - liberalism."
Questions still remain, said Cardinal Kasper, about the future path of ecumenism. "Uniform answers are impossible because the situation is so varied in the various parts of the world." He announced that "at the last plenary session of the pontifical council, it was suggested that a guide of spiritual ecumenism be prepared. The first draft will be presented and discussed in the upcoming congress."
Bishop Brian Farrell, secretary of the pontifical council, indicated that 260 people will attend the conference, including representatives from 28 episcopal conferences in Africa, 21 from America, 28 from Asia, 25 from Europe and 2 from Oceania, as well as representatives from the Eastern Catholic patriarchates. The presence of 27 fraternal delegates from the Orthodox Churches, the Ancient Church in the East, various other Churches and Christian communities in the West and international Christian organizations is also expected.
After an opening talk by Cardinal Kasper on "The Permanent and Urgent Significance of 'Unitatis redintegratio'," Metropolitan Johannis Zizioulas of Pergamo, of the ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople, will speak about the Orthodox perspective of the decree, and Professor Geoffrey Wainwright of the World Methodist Council will give a lecture on the document from the point of view of the Churches of the Reformation.
On the second day of the conference, Bishop Farrell will share the results of a questionnaire sent by the dicastery to the Episcopal conferences with up-to-date data on the ecumenical commitment in different local contexts. Msgr. Eleuterio F. Fortino, under-secretary of the council, will present a document whose title is "The Activity of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity from the promulgation of 'Unitatis redintegratio' till today."
On November 13, Cardinals Ivan Dias, archbishop of Bombay, India, and Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, archbishop of Westminster, Great Britain, Chiara Lubich, president of the Focolare Movement, and Fr. Enzo Bianchi, prior of the Monastic Community of Bose, Italy will speak about future perspectives of the decree.
On the same day at 5:30 p.m., the Pope is scheduled to preside at a celebration of Vespers in the Vatican Basilica, to which representatives of Churches and ecclesial communities, parishes and faithful of the diocese of Rome, movements and associations that work and pray for Christian unity have been invited.
…/CONFERENCE UNITATIS REDINTEGRATIO/KASPER VIS 20041110 (730)
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