In the ecumenical path, and especially in the relations with the Russian Orthodox Church, a meeting between Benedict XVI and Kirill “would certainly be an important sign, which would make this shared commitment visible and even more credible”. This was said by card. Walter Kasper, president of the Papal Council for the Unity of Christians, as he spoke this afternoon at the symposium “Orthodox and Catholics in Europe today. The Christian roots and the common cultural heritage of the East and West”, which is taking place in Rome, in the Russian parish church of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. The meeting is part of the initiatives for the “Days of Russian Culture and Spirituality in the Vatican”, taking place in the capital today and tomorrow. “Nobody – card. Kasper pointed out – is thinking of a meeting that is just for ceremony or a simple photo-shooting; nobody wants such cheap ecumenism; but a meeting between the Pope and the Patriarch might send a message, actually it would be a message in itself”, and would “be hugely helpful to overcome the still-existing difficulties”. “If instead – the Vatican delegate warned – we wait until all problems have been solved, such a meeting would become an eschatological event, instead of a contribution we need today”.
“The goal of the ecumenical path is not the uniformity of the Church but a full communion, with no blending in or taking over”, explained card. Walter Kasper, president of the Papal Council for the Unity of Christians, as he spoke this afternoon at the symposium “Orthodox and Catholics in Europe today. A goal that cannot be achieved either “by force or by submission”, but “through dialogue”. This commitment, according to the cardinal, “has established itself with a new intensity and urgency after the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989), which created an unprecedented condition” by unearthing again, as well as the post-war separation between Eastern and Western Europe, “the centuries older separation between the East and the West, sealed by the schism between Rome and Constantinople”. A picture that shed light on a double “existential emptiness”. In the West, “post-modern indifferentism and the mentality of consumer escapism”; in the East, “the blameworthy traces and spiritual devastation” that are the result of the “atheist propaganda” of the communist regimes. “If Europe wants to have a future again – warns card. Kasper –, it must first and foremost renew its Christian roots”, and this “renewal may be successful only by re-evangelising the continent.
According to card. Walter Kasper, president of the Papal Council for the Unity of Christians, “Christians in Europe, both in the West and in the East, are now facing very similar challenges”: the crisis of “a civilisation that since its dawn has been deeply defined by the Christian faith”. As he spoke this afternoon at a symposium in Rome, the Vatican delegate explained that “what is endangered is not Christianity as such”, but its “inculturation” in the European scenario, even if the “European identity” must be pursued with “the dawn of Christianity, especially the missionary travels of the Apostle Paul”, in mind. Yet, nowadays Europe is spiritually “weak”; it needs a “renewal” and, because of this it must first and foremost overcome the “divisions between Christians”. Card. Kasper recalls the “two big schisms: the one between the East and the West, and the Western one between the Catholic Church and the Protestant communities”, which “have undermined Christianity”, making it “much less credible to the world”. “To find its spiritual and missionary strength again, Europe needs a new-found unity, first and foremost among Christians”. Hence, he concludes, the importance of continuing the “ecumenical choice” defined as “irreversible” by John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

© SIR - 19 may 2010