Feature Article

?The whole truth is only found together?

Hope and faith in the Church breathe through any conversation with Cardinal Walter Kasper. He expounded to our Rome correspondent his belief in dialogue and consultation throughout the whole Church, and his vision of the future.

?I have my faith not from encyclicals or pastoral letters, but from my mother and my father?, says Cardinal Walter Kasper in his Vatican office. This from a man who believes in giving the Pope ?an even bigger role in the future?.

Sounds like a paradox? The German bishop-theologian knew from the age of five that he wanted to be a priest. Breaking into a hearty laugh, he remembers the day he told his mother of his intentions. ?You could never be a priest ? you?re too bad!?, she told him.

If there is a word which sums up the approach of the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, it is ?synthesis?. The 69-year-old has spent all of his priestly life seeking to reconcile the countless apparent contradictions in the Church?s theology and practice: first in nearly 30 years as a university professor, then in 12 years as a diocesan bishop.

Now, since 1999, he has been applying the principle of synthesis to the field of ecumenism as Pope John Paul II?s main deputy in overseeing the Vatican?s delicate work of promoting relations with other Christians.

He is not afraid of variety in the Church, he tells me. Kasper has written several books: The two he is most famous for ? The God of Jesus Christ and Jesus the Christ ? have been standard points of reference in Catholic seminaries and universities for the past 20 years. In them the cardinal adroitly demonstrates how the many strains and varieties of theological thought are not only complementary, but even necessary.

?Variety is a sign of richness ? not a mistake, failure or weakness?, Cardinal Kasper explains in an English that has a heavy, but charming, German accent. He pauses for a second ? just time to smile quickly ? then continues: ?When one element or aspect becomes one-sided, that is close to heresy. You cannot make a unilateral system of our faith, because our faith is aimed at a mystery, and in mystery there are different aspects and approaches.? His bottom line is this: ?No one has the whole truth; that is only found all together.?

Kasper is immediately likeable. Reflective and soft-spoken, he is quick with a smile, at ease in conversation and comfortable looking people in the eye. As a boy ? growing up with two sisters ? he played the violin, piano and organ, and he still enjoys the music of Mozart. His love for the Church and all its diversity is evident. Indeed, he has experienced much of it personally, especially in the realm of theology. He was an assistant to the conservative professor Leo Sceffczyk (now a cardinal) and was what he called a ?student and underling? of the progressive Swiss theologian Fr Hans K?ng at T?bingen University. He has also taught alongside all the important German theologians of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and its aftermath: Joseph Ratzinger, Johann Baptist Metz and Karl Rahner, as well as K?ng.

?It was a very interesting time?, Kasper remembers of the Council. ?Every day the papers were full of all the debates in the Church. The Church was seen in a very positive way, as one bishop debated against another and one cardinal against another. It did not damage the Church?, he points out excitedly, ?it helped it! It gave good expression to a living Church!?

And the only way to keep the Church alive, Cardinal Kasper believes, is to foster even more debate and discussion. ?Yes, I think we miss it?, he says. A couple of years ago he made good on those words when he challenged Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger?s views on the difference between local Churches and the universal Church. The two cardinals had a public exchange of views which made some people nervous. But not Kasper. ?There can be tensions?, he says confidently. Such tensions ?can be fruitful and are, in fact, a sign of life. When tensions stop, there is death.?

A healthy debate, Kasper implies, needs a spirit of reconciliation and integration. That is where he sees himself: ?in the middle?, seeking ?to integrate as much as possible?. He spells it out for me. ?The mission or task of the minister in the Church?, he says, is ?the ministry of unity. Of course, we have people on the right and the left in the Church who have their function.? He cannot resist adding, again with a warm smile: ?But things must also be brought together.?

Kasper?s view on this issue ? as on so many others ? is clearly forged from personal experience, particularly his experience of his notorious former colleague, Hans K?ng. ?I?ve known him for a very long time?, the cardinal says wistfully. ?We have good personal relations. He went his own way and I went mine. But I respect his decisions.?

Fr K?ng, who has been a fierce critic of John Paul II and of the doctrine of papal infallibility, lost his licence to teach as an official Catholic theologian in 1979 but continues writing and lecturing in other faculties. ?I think it?s a pity?, says Kasper, ?because he?s a very gifted man and he has the ability to translate difficult concepts into a language that people can understand. He?s not outside the Church, mind you?, Kasper points out, adding that K?ng ?does important work for the understanding between religions?. He adds, wishing that his former colleague could be rehabilitated: ?I still hope that one day he can improve his situation.?

Not many cardinals would go on record with such views. But Walter Kasper is neither a careerist nor a politician. In his very mild-mannered way he steadily and patiently reminds people that the Church needs reform. ?The Church always needs reform?, he says matter-of-factly, as if it were evident even to the most contented Catholics. ?The Church is the same in all centuries and the faith is the same, but the shape and expressions can and will change?, he explains. ?I don?t think changes can come only from the top down, but must also come from the ground up. It?s a discussion. It must be. There must be a reinforcement, I think, of synodal structures within our Church, not to deny the personal responsibility and authority of the bishops and the Pope, but to move on step by step. I don?t see any other way to proceed.?

?The world is changing very rapidly?, he says. ?How do we hold the Church together? And how do we speak to a chan-ging world?? Without being drawn into speculation on who the next pope might be or what concerns will be foremost in the minds of the cardinal electors (?I don?t think we should have a public debate on this matter?, he demurs), Kasper admits that these are just a couple of the serious issues to be dealt with. ?It will not be very easy for the next pope?, he sighs with furrowed brow.

One of the challenges John Paul II?s successor must face is what Cardinal Kasper calls the ?tension in many points between the official doctrines of the Church and what is received and lived within the Church?. Kasper, of course, believes ?we must try to bridge this gap?. The credibility factor will only be tackled adequately, the cardinal maintains, if the Church?s theology is rooted more deeply in people?s experience. ?Of course, the official doctrine of the Church is important for the Church?s theology?, he observes, but it is also ?very important? to be in contact with the ?living and lived faith of people: to know what people want, what their questions are, where they are bothered, where they have problems, and to answer these problems as much as possible?.

While he was Bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart in 1993, Kasper and Bishop Karl Lehmann of Mainz haggled with the Vatican over their plan to allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the sacraments in defined circumstances. They produced draft guidelines that were rejected by Rome. ?I now see the solution that we proposed at the time was, perhaps, not mature enough?, Cardinal Kasper reflects. He does not say the solution was wrong, and he does not think the problem is solved. ?None of us wants to give up the indissolubility of marriage, but family life and marriage are in a crisis right now. The Church has a mission to maintain this position but it must take into account that disasters happen.?

Walter Kasper is a latecomer to Rome. He never studied at one of the city?s pontifical universities, and only started learning Italian when he took up his job in the Roman Curia in 1999. ?I am a stranger here?, he acknowledges, without a trace of self-pity. A stranger he may be, but his lively intelligence, genuine kindness and respectful candour have helped win him supporters. It is natural that this Roman experience added to his already impressive pedigree have led some to look on him as a candidate ? a dark horse, maybe, but still a candidate ? for the next Bishop of Rome. ?I think someone who desires this job and believes he?s able to carry it out is not papabile?, is the way he dismisses that suggestion. But his ideas on the reform of the papacy and the exercise of authority in the Church are among the most serious proffered by any cardinal so far.

Kasper has thought deeply about the see of Peter. ?I see a new phase emerging at the beginning of the third millennium where the papal ministry will have an even bigger role in the future?, he says assuredly. That doesn?t mean centralisation overseen by the Roman Curia, he clarifies. On the contrary, ?I?m in favour of taking a serious look at giving relative autonomy ? relative autonomy ? to the local Churches. There must be a plurality in the Church. In this sense, some things can be and must be changed. But the Petrine ministry itself is very important for unity and also to protect the Church from states, regimes, society, moods and so on.?

Though Pope Pius XII was not ?the old-fashioned and reactionary pope as he?s often and unjustly described?, his pontificate ?was the end of a certain type of papacy?. Pope John XXIII was ?one pope I liked very much? who was ?the beginning of this new development?. He describes Paul VI as ?the right Pope for his time, in solidarity with the sufferings, the problems and uncertainties of modern people?. And John Paul II? Kasper does not hesitate: ?one of the great popes of human history?. He adds: ?We cannot go back, but must build on what he?s done.?

Cardinal Kasper keeps in mind John Paul?s 1995 encyclical on ecumenism, Ut Unum Sint, where the Pope invites input from non-Catholic Christians on how to reform the papacy. ?We have a lot of responses and have collected them in a high pile!? the cardinal proudly announces. ?We have made an analysis of them and we discussed that in our plenary last November. Now we?ve sent this analysis to all Churches and all federations of church communities in the world, especially to those who officially answered the request of the Pope. And so, the debate goes on.? And Cardinal Kasper thinks it looks promising. ?The Pope is no longer seen as the anti-Christ. There have been some convergences, but there is still no consensus. We have to see how we can move forward. But, no question about it, there?s a new atmosphere, a new climate, and a new openness?, he says.

He believes that reforming the papacy will require help ? not only from the other bishops and theologians, but also from all the people in the Church. ?We need authority. But there must be three dimensions?, he points out. ?First, there must be the personal responsibility of the pope and of each bishop in his diocese. Then, there must be the collegial dimension: contact between the bishop and his priests, and between the pope and the college of bishops. And, finally, there must be a third dimension ? a dimension of communion. We must listen to the sensus and the consensus of the faithful.? These three dimensions, he says, must be interwoven. ?There is some lack of this today and I think it will be important to get back to the situation we had during the Council.?

Talk of reform of the Church raises the question of whether a new Pope should call a council of the whole Church. Cardinal Kasper has very clear ideas about this. ?A truly ecumenical council would have to include at least the Orthodox Churches?, he points out. ?That would be one of my greatest desires; but the situation is not yet mature.? But then he hints that the groundwork for a council is already being laid. ?Perhaps the ecumenical dialogue ? especially with these Eastern Churches ? is a certain type of pre-conciliar phase to prepare for such an ecumenical council?, he says, giving the impression that he really didn?t mean to qualify his thoughts with that perhaps. He finishes the thought more emphatically. ?We are?, he thinks, ?in the preparatory phase.?

Cardinal Kasper has spent most of the past three years trying to resolve tensions between Catholics and Orthodox and by shoring up relations with other Christian communities that are not yet in full communion with the Bishop of Rome. ?It wasn?t easy first to give up theology and then the diocese ? to be a bishop without people is not so easy for me?, he confesses. ?But I love this work and its international dimension. It?s a challenge and it?s certainly not boring.?

?Boring? would hardly describe the turbulent storms Cardinal Kasper has passed through in his dealings with the Orthodox Churches ? especially with the Moscow Patriarchate. Catholic relations with the Russian Orthodox Church dipped to a new low earlier in the year when the Vatican?s decision to raise four church jurisdictions to the level of full dioceses brought an angry response from Moscow?s Orthodox leaders. From the weary tone of his responses, it is clear that Cardinal Kasper is all too well rehearsed in this line of questioning.

Were the Russian Orthodox consulted before making the Catholic dioceses? ?They were informed.?

But they weren?t consulted? ?There was no consultation, but they were informed and the government was informed about it. I really don?t understand their reaction ? I must say ? because now they?re saying they will only have contact with the Vatican again when the problems are solved. My question is, ?How do we solve the problems without dialogue???

Your office doesn?t make dioceses, I point out. ?No, we don?t make dioceses, but we were informed.?

But was this a decision that came from your dicastery? ?No, this was a decision of the Secretary of State, of course. We cannot make such decisions, but we were informed. I must say that I didn?t foresee the extent of the problem, because I thought it was just a changing of names and nothing else.?

Cardinal Kasper admits his shortcomings as a Westerner in understanding the Eastern mentality. ?With the Orthodox and the ancient Oriental Churches, the gap is not so much a dogmatic one; it?s more a question of mentality or culture?, he argues. ?It?s a question between Western and Eastern Roman Empires. The Berlin Wall collapsed but this cultural wall is still there to some degree, so we need to have a lot of patience.?

Nowhere is that patience being stretched more than in Siberia, where the priests who care for the small Catholic communities complain of government harassment ? instigated, they say, by the Orthodox. The expulsion of Bishop Jerzy Mazur a few months ago was the most dramatic case. ?It?s unacceptable?, Cardinal Kasper frowns. ?It?s not the Patriarchate, formally, but the Russian State that withdrew the visa without giving a reason. This is a method reminiscent of the Soviet Union?, he says.

It has been just over a decade since the Soviet empire collapsed. ?For the first time in its history the Russian Orthodox Church is free ? free from Byzantine emperors, Ottoman rulers, the Czar, and, of course, from Communist oppression and persecution. It?s only been 12 years now and this Church has to find its role, its place, and its direction in a completely changed world. We want to help them?, he says with obvious sincerity.

But he again shows his weariness when he answers the Orthodox accusations that the Catholics are proselytising in Russia. ?The Russian Orthodox have a very vague and expansive understanding of proselytism, which is also a certain fear due to the fact that they feel they are weak. Of course they are weak after this long period of persecution, and our clergy are better formed, educated and equipped with pastoral experience. The question for the Orthodox is how to deal with this new situation. And, therefore, they resent it when we do good pastoral work and sometimes they see it as proselytism. But it is very clear that proselytism is not our strategy or politics. This is a question of religious freedom. And this is the main problem: recognising religious freedom. For us it is a fundamental human right.?

But however depressing the situation with the Orthodox, Cardinal Kasper remains an optimistic, cheery synthesiser. ?The Holy Spirit is always good for a surprise!? he says with a grin.