INTERVIEW OF THE DAY

Kasper in the UK: “Recent developments in Jewish-Christian relations” was the subject of a lecture given Monday by Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, at Hope University, Liverpool, England.
The Cardinal was in the UK this weekend, where he also delivered homilies at both the Catholic and Anglican Cathedrals of the city.
His visit comes only months ahead of Pope Benedict XVI’s first Apostolic Journey to the United Kingdom, scheduled for this September.
Cardinal Kasper spoke to us about expectations ahead of the visit:
“Of course he will address British Society as a whole, I do not know what he will say in detail, but we are in contact with the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is very interested in the fact that the Pope will not make the beatification of Newman an event only for the Catholics, but an event for the whole of society. Then Europe and also England have so many financial problems at the moment, so the Pope can present and repeat what he has already said in Caritas in Veritate which was very well received in Britain. This will be one main point and a second main point will be the relations with the Anglican Church. After the Council, especially after the visit of Archbishop Ramsey we had very high expectations and hopes, which have been considerably lowered by problems within the Anglican community. Nevertheless the Archbishop and the Pope are decided in their intent to pursue the path of ecumenism, we will resume now the third phase of ARCIC (The Anglican—Roman Catholic International Commission). The Pope will also visit Lambeth Palace and hold an ecumenical service together with the Archbishop. And then the third main point will be the beatification of Newman, this will take place in a very significant place; in the airport at Coventry, this is not easy for a German Pope, because Coventry is a symbol of the Second World War, at the same time it has also become a symbol of reconciliation, twinning with Dresden, another city-symbol of WWII. But it is the beatification of Newman a very important, event, not only for the Catholic Church, he is one of the main representative figure of Anglo-Saxon culture, Anglo-Saxon theology so it is important for both Churches to highlight what he says, particularly on the development of Doctrine”.
Q: You are also addressing Jewish-Christian relations there when you visit Liverpool..
“Yes of course, Jewish-Christian relations are very important in England, Rabbi Sacks is very famous. So I took this issue to speak about the progress that we have made in the meantime, progress which is very important to me as a German, so international progress. I think we have overcome many prejudices, many problems, but also wounds which are there from the past. I think that now we are now in a very good and positive place for cooperation, not only speaking of the past but also looking at the future to make a difference in our society".
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