The three ways for the future ” “

The Church of the future won’t be an “inward-looking” Church, locked into “an apologetic self-defence or the restoration of antiquated confessionalism, but a Church radically open to others”, said Cardinal Walter Kasper , president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, in a recent speech in Rome. Cardinal Kasper, together with Lutheran bishop Margot Kaessmann and the general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, Ishmael Noko, was participating in a round table as part of the 9th International Congress on “Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Christian humanism”. In tracing the future of ecumenism and the Church, Cardinal Kasper reviewed the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, which – he said – especially in its exegesis of the biblical concept of discipleship, “has something to say both to Protestants and to Catholics about the future of the Church”. The future of the Church and of ecumenism. The future – explained Kasper – is a Church that by following the indications of the Beatitudes, “devotes all its prosperity to those in need, a Church where pastors live the gifts of the faith, a Church that does not give rules but helps and serves”. Speaking on the margins of the congress, the cardinal explained better what steps ecumenism must take to respond to the hopes for the future. First, he emphasized “the danger of cut-price ecumenism” and this risk – he said – requires that the Churches should reflect more attentively “on the steps of baptism and the faith”. Second, the ecumenical future must also include the effort to “be more international. The Churches – explained Kasper – are too inward-looking and self-enclosed. The rise of a new provincialism, at times a new nationalism, can be observed”. The third way for the future requires that Christians should “consider the problems of the world, the problems of justice and peace, and restore to the person the sacredness of life. On these questions we can give witness together and this ecumenical practice can also facilitate the solution of fundamental doctrinal problems”. The Churches and Iraq. “Being a sign and instrument of peace in the world”: that’s the most important task of the Churches today, but if Christians are to make their voice heard, they need to be united. “The unity of Christians – says Keith Clements, general secretary of the Conference of Christian Churches (Cec) – and their action in favour of peace in the world are two faces of the same coin”. The problems of peace, the struggle against terrorism and the war in Iraq were also discussed at the 9th International Congress on “Dietrich Bonhoeffer”. According to the Lutheran bishop Margot Kaessmann “there is no road to peace on the road to security”. “In the name of security – explained Kaessmann – people have been killed and tortured. The ecumenical movement must make its voice heard on this”. “We must say with determination – she continued – that there can be no legitimacy for torture: there is no price, no reason, that can justify it”. “The ecumenical movement – she added – must align itself in favour of human rights in the name of peace. Christians of all churches and throughout the world must affirm that there is no road to peace but that peace itself is the road”. As regards the war in Iraq, the Lutheran bishop said: “what we are willing to discuss is the use of an international peacekeeping force with policing functions, but this can only be legitimated by the United Nations. Terrorism cannot be combated with war, but only through the alliance of peoples of all nations and all religions committed to peace. It must, in other words, be clear that religion does not foment conflicts but on the contrary can help to solve them”. Speaking to the “deaf”. The general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, Ishmael Noko, spoke, by contrast, of the difficulties encountered in making the voice of the Churches heard by political leaders. “I have spent hours and hours – he said – in the corridors of the United Nations and of governments and I can testify how difficult it is to make the voice of the Churches heard there”. Noko recalled a meeting of Church leaders with US Secretary of State Colin Powell: it was – said Noko – a meeting with “a deaf man”.