Recent progress towards reconciliation between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches must not endanger relations with Protestants, warned Professor Paul Zulehner, dean of the Catholic theological faculty at Vienna University.

The resumption of talks by the Catholic-Orthodox Commission after an interruption of six years and the joint declaration by Pope Benedict XVI and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul had left the Reformation Churches feeling increasingly left out, Professor Zulehner said in an article in the Austrian daily Wiener Zeitung.

He wrote that "the drop of bitterness in this recent Catholic-Orthodox reconciliation is that the Protestants feel they are progressively becoming bit-part players as far as ecumenical dialogue is concerned". The ecumenical reforms of the Second Vatican Council had been influenced by all the Christian Churches, Professor Zulehner said, and Pope Benedict XVI and all the Orthodox patriarchs should therefore try and "fetch the Reformation Churches back into the ecumenical boat as soon as possible".

The professor argued that, with the exception of Evangelicals, Reformation Churches had the fewest difficulties with the modern world, unlike the Orthodox Church and many Catholics. They could therefore act as a counterbalance to the present "maelstrom of thoughtless criticism of modernity". It was to be hoped that reconciliation with the Catholic Church would encourage the Orthodox Church to open itself further to the modern world and the possibility of dialogue with Reformation Churches, Professor Zulehner said.

Meanwhile, the newly appointed Austrian head of the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe, Michael Bunker, has pledged to strengthen the "Protestant voice" in continental affairs, while also stepping up dialogue with Catholics and other denominations. "There's a specific Protestant source of ethics, particularly towards freedom and responsibility, which could be helpful in discussing contemporary issues in Europe," he told The Tablet.