“There is no alternative to ecumenism. It is the deepest desire of Jesus and must therefore be an aspiration of the Christian Churches too”, declared Helmut Krätzl, auxiliary bishop of Vienna, during the 50th ecumenical Symposium of the Graz section of the ecumenical foundation “Pro-Oriente” in recent days. The meeting, whose participants included the bishop emeritus of Graz, Msgr. Johann Weber, and the president of Pro-Oriente, Hans Marte, was the occasion for an “examination of conscience on everything that has been omitted, on the sins committed against ecumenism, and on what the spirit of God wishes to inspire us to do now”. Bishop Krätzl enunciated as an objective of the Catholic Church “unity in the faith, in the sacraments and in the office of apostolic service”, though always expressed in the terms of a “unity in multiplicity”. To this end he warned against the “illusion that the Churches may find ‘a single language’ in ethics”, since, he explained, “the differences are too great, beginning with the questions on the morality of marriage, such as contraception, and including the judgement on homosexual unions and the questions of bioethics. In spite of that he continued the Christian Churches are not excluded from credible participation in the important dialogue within society”. He finally recalled that the Churches are in need of “constant purification. The courage to introduce far-reaching innovations must exist in all the Christian Churches, also in those that, in contrast to the Catholic Church, did not experience the drive to innovation obtained with Vatican Council II.
