Koch says unity must take centre stage on Reformation anniversary

An “ecumenical act of penance” for the injuries, malicious acts and misunderstandings that both sides have been guilty of in the past 500 years, should be the main concern of Catholics and Protestants during the coming Reformation Anniversary Year, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity (PCPCU), Cardinal Kurt Koch, has said, writes Christa Pongratz-Lippitt.

In a long article on ecumenism in the special edition of the German theological monthly Herder Korrespondenz, Koch regretted that the aim of the ecumenical movement has become “less and less clear over the years”. There is no longer consensus “on what is meant by the unity that is being aimed at”, he pointed out, and emphasised how important it is for the understanding of unity to take centre stage in ecumenical dialogue in future. He warned of the danger that “the different Churches will go ahead in different directions only to discover that they have drifted further apart”. The Churches must decide which direction their ecumenical journey should take, he underlined.

Two weeks before the Pope’s visit, the Scandinavian Catholic Bishops’ Conference has published a pastoral letter on their intended ecumenical “way of reconciliation”. Since the Second Vatican Council the Catholic Church has accepted many concepts that Protestants consider important, such as the Priesthood of All the Faithful, and many Protestants have accepted Catholic concepts, they observe.