Ecumenism at the heart of New Evangelisation: Card. Koch

December 11, 2012: ‘The prerequisite for a credible proclamation of the Christian message in the Year of Faith is the self-evangelization of the Church and of Christian ecumenism. Only a united Church can proclaim the Gospel of unity at the service of humanity in a credible manner’, said Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
He was speaking on Monday at the Lateran University on ‘Christian Unity: illusion or promise? Ecumenical aspects of the Year of Faith’. Gathering humanity in the all-embracing love of God is the core of the Christian mission manifested in Christ, he added.
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.
By its very nature the Church is missionary, hence, said the Cardinal, the II Vatican Council has interpreted the Church as an eschatological movement, more precisely, as the people of God in its earthly pilgrimage between the "already" and "not yet." In this eschatological dynamic of the Church, the Council has also integrated the ecumenical movement. In this eschatological perspective, the ecumenical movement and the missionary movement are inextricably linked, said Cardinal Koch.
Returning to the theme discussed at the recent plenary assembly of the Council, the Cardinal 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.