Progressives and Traditionalists Suffer from the same Ailment: Card. Koch

October 30, 2012: The Progressives and the Traditionalists in the Church suffer from the same ailment. Both see the Vatican Council II equally as a break, even if in a very different way, said Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. He was speaking in an interview to the News Agency, Zenit, at the sidelines of the just concluded the Synod of Bishops in Rome.

The progressives profess a hermeneutics of discontinuity and break. The traditionalists profess a hermeneutics of pure continuity: only that which is already noticeable in the Tradition can be Catholic doctrine, therefore, practically, there cannot be a renewal. Cardinal Koch clarified further that precisely for this reason the Pope calls his interpretation of the Council not “hermeneutics of continuity” but “hermeneutics of reform.” It is a question of renewal in continuity.
The Pope has questioned this understanding of the conciliar hermeneutics of the break and proposed the hermeneutics of reform, which unites continuity and renewal. The Pontiff presented this hermeneutics already in his first Christmas address in 2005 and thus gave precise indications on how to interpret the Council and make it fruitful for the future, added Cardinal Koch.

When asked about his impressions of this Synod, Cardinal Koch said: This is now my fourth Synod. On the whole, the outline is always the same but this Synod of bishops is particularly interesting since there are episcopal representatives of the whole world. To be able to glean the experiences of all the bishops is already something extraordinary, and also to be able to experience how different the Church is in the world and at the same time how much the problems resemble one another.

Asked about the dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches, he said that at present the Orthodox Church is very busy with preparations for the Pan-Orthodox Synod. Personally, I am convinced that when it takes place it will be a great step forward for ecumenical dialogue, added Cardinal Koch.