Urgent need for a new Assisi

An ecumenical closing of ranks and an interreligious prayer meeting, like the World Day of Prayer that Pope St John Paul II held at Assisi in 1986, are urgently needed today, the President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch, told journalists at the Benedictine Abbey of Kremsmünster in Upper Austria. It was crucial for the Churches to work together to meet the huge challenge of refugees fleeing to Europe, he said. They had to act “ecumenically, with combined forces”.

Addressing this year’s Kremsmünster summer academy, the cardinal also warned of possible schisms over women’s ordination, a “huge problem” for almost all Churches. Pope Francis “has made it clear that this issue is not open for him,” he said.