The common challenge

In the ecumenical journey, in the relations with the Russian-Orthodox Church in particular, the encounter of Benedict XVI with Patriarch Kyrill “could certainly be an important sign, which would grant further visibility and credibility to our joint commitment”. Thus spoke cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, in the address delivered at the symposium titled “Orthodox and Catholics in Europe today. Christian roots and the common heritage of the East and West”, held on May 19 at Rome’s Russian Orthodox parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria. The meeting lies within the framework of initiatives for the “Days of Russian culture and spirituality in the Vatican”, promoted by Moscow’s Patriarchate, by the Vatican department chaired by card. Kasper, in conjunction with the Pontifical Council for Culture, and the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity. The meeting closed last evening with a concert of Russian music at Paul VI Hall to the presence of pope Benedict XVI.Full communion through dialogue. “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 – His Eminence counseled – we wait until all problems have been solved, such a meeting would become an eschatological event, rather than the contribution that is needed today”. “Thanks God – remarked the President of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity – today, despite the differences which unfortunately remain and which are the object of debate in the mutual dialogue, we have learnt to mutually acknowledge one another as Christians and as sister Churches”. “The goal of the ecumenical path – His Eminence said – is not the uniformity of the Church but a full communion, with no blending in or taking over”. It is a goal that cannot be achieved either “by force or by submission”, but “through dialogue”. A twofold spiritual void. 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, along with 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 brought to the fore a twofold “spiritual void”. These are, “post-modern indifferentism and the mentality of consumer escapism” in the West and “the deplorable traces and the spiritual devastation” produced by the “atheist propaganda” of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe. “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 through the re-evangelization of the continent; “the inculturation of faith and the revival of culture in Europe will ensue, namely, the new face of Europe”.Recovering Europe’s mission. For the prelate, “Christians in Europe, both in the West and in the East, are now facing very similar challenges”: the crisis of “a civilization that since its dawn has been deeply defined by the Christian faith”. “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”; this weakness, which became evident “on the occasion of the debate on the Community Constitution, when the Christian roots failed to be acknowledged, contradicting all historical evidence”, prevents Europe from “recovering its historical mission”. No future is possible, the Cardinal cautioned, “unless Europe’s vocation is acknowledged along with his historical responsibilities”. Overcoming the “two major schisms”. In order to further the Continent’s “need for renewal”, it is necessary to heal “Christians’ divisions”. Cardinal Kasper recalled 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 recover its spiritual and missionary strength, 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. This, said cardinal Kasper, must be linked to “a critical but constructive dialogue with modern pluralistic culture”, in the horizon of a “respectful coexistence” with the other religions “present in Europe today, with Islam in particular”.