(Vatican Radio) ‘Christian Unity: illusion or promise? Ecumenical aspects of the Year
of Faith’ That was the title of a lecture given at the Lateran University on Monday
by Swiss theologian Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting
Christian Unity. Philippa Hitchen takes a closer look:
Listen:
In his reflections,
Cardinal Koch stressed the importance of maintaining the goal of full, visible unity
of the Churches as the only way of providing a credible witness of Christian faith
in today’s increasingly secular societies. Returning to the theme discussed at
the recent plenary assembly of the Council, he underlined the importance of ecumenism
at the heart of all new evangelisation. Modern secularist thought and the privatisation
of religion, he noted, are in part a consequence of the tragic divisions and bitter
conflicts between the Churches in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Since the first World Missionary Conference, held in Edinburgh in 1910, he said, it
has become increasingly clear that authentic witness to the Gospel of Christ will
only become possible again when the Churches manage to heal those divisions and walk
together as one. Cardinal Koch also stressed the essential role of prayer in
the search for Christian unity: just as Jesus prayed at the Last Supper that his disciples
“be one so that the world may believe”, in the same way, all Christians today must
increase both prayer and practical action to reconcile and restore the unity of the
one Body of Christ.