In fact, emphasised card. Kasper, "a careful reading shows that the Document does not deny that the Protestant Churches are actually Churches, i.e. they are not Churches in the sense in which the Catholic Church understands itself to be as a Church". This, according to the cardinal, "for any person with an average ecumenical background, is tantamount to a statement that is in itself obvious. In fact the evangelical Churches do not want to be a Church in the same sense as the Catholic Church; they give priority to a concept of the Church and the ministry that that does not match the actual concept of the Catholics". In this respect, he went on, "isn’t it true that the latest evangelical document on ‘Ministry and ordination’ did something similar to the Statement, by stating that the understanding of the Church and ministry by the Catholic Church is not ‘quite that’ of the Protestants?" When, following the Statement "Dominus Iesus", he explained, "I stated that the Protestant Churches are a different kind of church, this did not clash with the wording of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as some evangelical parties claimed. On the contrary, I looked for an appropriate interpretation, of which I am still convinced", not least because "the Catholics still speak of Protestant Churches". (continued)” “
