REPORTS ON TODAY'S CONSULTATIVE MEETING AND PRE-CONSISTORY
but a mandate for the Church'
Benedict XVI told cardinals today that "ecumenism is, for the Catholic church, a mandate, not an option for discussion", at the extraordinary meeting of the College of CArdinals which he convoked specifically to discuss the status of relations among Christian churches, on the eve of a consistory creating 23 new cardinals.
According to Coptic Patriarch Stephanos II Ghattas of Egypt, the Pope called on the cardinals to consider well particular points of the Ravenna document, and underscored that "Catholics should be an example for the world." Ghattas quoted the Pope as saying he was 'confident and optimistic' about the ecumenical dialog.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, underscored that the recognition by the Ravenna document of the Bishop of Rome as 'first among equls' among the patriarchs of Chistendom was a 'first step forward'.
He also said that the absence of the Russian Orthodox Church among the signatories of the Ravenna document was "a political question that does not affect the theological content of the document."
The following part is from an Apcom report:
Many cardinals, coming out of the morning session today, said the atmosphere was 'very cordial and familial'.
They said that the Pope, besides his introductory remakrs, also summed up the morning discussions at the end of the session.
France's Cardinal Ricard said about 15 cardinals animated the discussion that followeed Cardinal Kasper's presentation.
Cardinal Theodore McCarry, emeritus archbishop of Washington, DC, said he spoke up to underscore the importance of 'the social doctrine of the Church as a basis for ecumenical collaboration."
"I think that we should work with the Orthodox and the Protestants in concrete actions against poverty and on other social problems."
Cardinal Kasper, commenting on relations between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church said, "we can say that our relations have considerably smoothened in the past few years - that there is no longer a freeze, but a thaw."
"From our point of view," he continued, "a meeting between the Holy Father and the Patriarch of Moscow would be useful....Moscow has never categorically ruled this out, but he (Alexei II) maintains that it is important to first resolve what he considers to be problems in Russia, but especially in the Ukraine....It must be remembered, however, that many encounters have taken place at various levels -among these, even the patriarch's recent visit to Paris, which on both sides, was considered a very important step."
On other parts of the ecumenical dialog, Cardinal Kasper said, "In my presentation, I also spoke about the Pentecostals. It is a problem that we should seriously consider and be aware of pastorally."
He added, howwever, that "the problem with the Anglicans is rather great, and we are pursuing it very closely in order to arrive at some resolution."
Vatican Radio adds the following:
Cardinal Kasper said, "Everyone spoke highly in favor of ecumenism - because everyone accepts that it is not an optional choice, that ecumenism is a sacred obligation. It is a mandate from our Lord....
"On the whole, it was a very positive discussion, and I am very satisfied. The Pope was very attentive, but it was he who said at the sart, 'There should be no doubt that ecumenism is our mandate'. At the end, he more or less confirmed the general lines I had indicated in my presentation."
With tomorrow's consistory, there will be 201 cardinals, of whom 120 will be electors.
They come from 69 countries. Italy has the most cardinals with 21, followed by the USA with 14. There are 104 European cardinals, 54 from the Americas, 21 Asians, 18 Africans, and four from Oceania.
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Cardinals discuss Pentecostal threats
By NICOLE WINFIELD
VATICAN CITY, Nov. 23 (AP) - A senior Vatican cardinal told a gathering of the world's top prelates Friday that the Roman Catholic Church had to examine what it is doing wrong in the battle for souls who are leaving the church to join Pentecostal and other evangelical groups.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, who heads the Vatican's office for relations with other Christians, told a meeting of more than 100 cardinals that the church must undergo a "self-critical pastoral examination of conscience" to confront the "exponential" rise of Pentecostal movements.
"We shouldn't begin by asking ourselves what is wrong with the Pentecostals, but what our own pastoral shortcomings are," Kasper told the gathering, noting that such evangelical and charismatic groups count some 400 million faithful around the world.
The Vatican has been increasingly lamenting the rise of Protestant evangelical communities, which the Vatican describes as "sects," in Latin America, Africa and elsewhere and the resulting flight of Catholics. In Brazil alone, Roman Catholics used to account for about 90 percent of the population in the 1960s; by 2005 it was down to 67 percent.
The meeting came on the eve of Saturday's ceremony to elevate 23 new cardinals. As he did during his first consistory in 2006, Pope Benedict XVI asked the world's cardinals to come to Rome early for a meeting to discuss pressing church issues before the ceremony.
This year, Kasper briefed the cardinals on the church's relations with other Christians, focusing on the church's relations with the Orthodox, Protestants and Pentecostal movements.
Kasper said the rise of independent, often "aggressive" evangelical movements in places such as Africa had complicated the church's ecumenical task and made it more confused. Nevertheless, Kasper told reporters after the morning session that "ecumenism is not an option but an obligation."
Kasper opened his remarks by updating the cardinals and cardinal-designates on an important new document approved by a Vatican-Orthodox theological commission that has been working to heal the 1,000-year schism between the Catholic and Orthodox churches.
In the document, Catholic and Orthodox representatives both agreed that the pope has primacy over all bishops — although they disagreed over just what authority that primacy gives him.
The development is significant since the Great Schism of 1054 — which split the Catholic and Orthodox churches — was precipitated largely by disagreements over the primacy of the pope.
Kasper told the cardinals that the document was an "important turning point," since it marked the first time that Orthodox churches had agreed that there is a universal level of the church, that it has a primate, and that according to ancient church practice, that primate is the bishop of Rome — the pope.
"All the participants realize that this is just a first step and that the path toward full ecclesial communion will be long and difficult," he said.
Orthodox scholars and officials have praised the document as positive but they also noted that the recognition of the pope's primacy over all other bishops is, in practical terms, moot since the schism remains.
Kasper said that the Vatican's relations with the Russian Orthodox Church, in particular, had become "significantly smoother" in recent years.
"We can say there's no longer a freeze but a thaw," Kasper said.
Tensions between the two churches have been strained over Orthodox accusations that the Vatican is seeking converts on traditionally Orthodox territories, particularly in eastern Europe — charges that Rome denies.
The strain has precluded a meeting between a pope and Patriarch Alexy II, long sought by Pope John Paul II and pursued by Benedict.
Kasper noted that Moscow had "never categorically excluded" such an encounter.
Kasper said a recent document from the Vatican had created a "certain discontent" among Protestants, Lutherans and other Christian denominations spawned by the 16th century reformation.
The document issued this past summer contained nothing doctrinally new but repeated church teaching that other Christian communities were either defective or not true churches.
Kasper said the criticism that erupted after the document was released was "unjustified" but said the Vatican should review the form, language and way of presenting similar documents in the future.
Day One: Sights and Sounds of the Consistory
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome
November 23, 2007
While the pageantry of the consistory reaches full flower tomorrow with the public ceremony in which 23 new members of the church’s most exclusive club receive their red hats, today marks the most important “business meeting” of the College of Cardinals.
At 9:30 am Rome time, some 140 cardinals and cardinals-to-be filed into the Vatican’s Synod Hall to meet with Pope Benedict XVI. After a half-hour of morning prayer, the cardinals were to hear a presentation from Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and then to discuss the state of the church’s ecumenical efforts.
Symbolically, putting ecumenism at the heart of the agenda is intended by Benedict XVI to reinforce the Catholic church’s commitment to the quest for Christian unity, despite signs of paralysis and new upheavals in some of the church’s dialogues with other Christian bodies.
This afternoon, the cardinals have the opportunity over the course of two hours to raise whatever issues they like with the pope, who will then deliver a concluding address.
The business meeting is a closed-door affair, although a handful of members of the press were allowed in at the beginning to observe the opening prayer.
Outside the Synod Hall, reporters watched the various cardinals and cardinals-to-be arrive. When Archbishop John Foley arrived, the former President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and a figure well known to the world’s media, the press gallery broke into spontaneous applause. Foley was one of the few prelates to actually walk over to the press and offer a few words, referring to himself jokingly as “Il Cardinale dei Media.”
One reporter noted that Foley was still clad in his archbishop’s purple, leading him to explain that he won’t be a cardinal until tomorrow’s ceremony.
“The red goes on tomorrow,” he said.
Foley has been under the weather in recent days; he begged out of the Thanksgiving Mass at Santa Susanna, the American parish in Rome, on Thursday in order to save his strength for this weekend’s festivities. He told reporters this morning that he still isn’t feeling 100 percent, but is determined to make it through the next three days.
Before the morning prayer, reporters had the chance to greet several of the cardinals who were mingling in the atrium of the Synod Hall. Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, for example, the former private secretary of Pope John Paul II, came over to say hello.
Asked how he felt to be back in the Synod Hall, where he had accompanied John Paul innumerable times over the course of 23 years, Dziwisz said simply, “So many memories.”
Inside the Synod Hall, Benedict XVI arrived at 9:30 am as the cardinals stood and applauded. He was flanked on his right by Archbishop Francesco Monterisi, secretary of the Congregation for Bishops and also secretary of the College of Cardinals, along with Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the dean of the College. On the pope’s left were Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary of State, and Kasper.
Sodano delivered a greeting to Benedict XVI in the name of the other cardinals, observing that today is the feast of St. Clement the Roman, listed in the Vatican Annuario as the third pope of the Catholic church.
Most cardinals arrived well ahead of the pope, though a few straggled in after the opening bell; Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Belgium, for example, arrived ten minutes late and quietly took a seat in the back row of the Synod Hall.
Archbishop Francisco Robles Ortega of Monterrey, Mexico arrives by car.
Cardinal Adrianus Johannes Simonis of the Netherlands arrives on his bicycle.
Reuters has more detail in its report:
Pope, cardinals discuss ties
with other Christians
By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor
VATICAN CITY, Nov. 23 (Reuters) - Pope Benedict and his cardinals discussed Catholic relations with other Christians on Friday, highlighting efforts to work closely with the Orthodox and to meet the challenge of fast-growing Protestant churches.
The closed-door meeting, held on the eve of a ceremony to install 23 new cardinals, took place amid progress with the Orthodox - who broke from Rome in 1054 - but growing fragmentation in the Protestant and Anglican world.
The Roman Catholic Church, with 1.1 billion of the world's 2 billion Christians, seeks better ties with other Churches partly to strengthen the Christian message in the world.
A statement on the meeting said the cardinals also spoke briefly about ties with Jews and Muslims but gave no details. Islam is a pressing issue after 138 Muslim scholars called for a broad Christian-Muslim dialogue last month.
"We made good progress with the Orthodox in Ravenna," said Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the department for Christian unity, referring to a Catholic-Orthodox meeting last month that agreed the Pope was the leading prelate of Christianity.
The Russian Orthodox Church, with more than half the world's 220 million Orthodox, quit that meeting in protest against the presence of an Estonian Orthodox Church aligned to the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, today's Istanbul.
"We are working now in Constantinople and Moscow that they find a solution or a compromise. It's a political question, not a theological one," Kasper told journalists.
The Russian Orthodox Church, which has become more active on the ecumenical scene since the fall of communism, chafes under the tradition that gives pride of place to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomos, despite the fact his local church is tiny.
Kasper said a historic meeting between Pope Benedict and the Alexiy, the Russian Orthodox Patriarch, would be very helpful to improve relations but did not say when or where it might take place.
Kasper said talks with the Orthodox could not restore the hierarchy of the ancient church, which gave second place to Constantinople, but that the Orthodox agreed last month for the first time that the Pope still held first place.
"This can only be the Bishop of Rome," he said, using one of Benedict's titles. "There is no other candidate."
On relations with Anglicans, Kasper said the 77-million member Anglican Communion was in "a very difficult situation" with the challenges by traditionalists - many from the Third World - against liberal bishops in western countries.
The Anglican Communion is in internal crisis over the ordination of women and openly homosexual bishops.
"We hope they make a decision very soon. They cannot postpone all this crisis. There must be a decision made. But it is not in our hands."
Relations with Protestant Churches were getting more difficult because of "an inner fragmentation" among them, Kasper said. "Some of them have turned to liberal (positions) and there are now new ethical problems dividing them," he said.
He said that evangelical churches were spreading quickly and noted there were now 400 million Pentecostals around the world.
These two conservative Christian movements have been spreading especially rapidly in Latin America, often wooing away the faithful from the Catholic Church there.
"We must not ask first what is wrong with the Pentecostals but ask what is wrong with our pastoral work and come to a spitirual renewal," he said.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 24/11/2007 00:49]