"Pope John XXIII was convinced that the council must pursue two aims - the renewal of the Catholic Church and Christian unity. That was the focus of the entire Council," said Cardinal Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
Interviewed by the Austrian and German Catholic Press Agencies in Rome, Cardinal Koch recalled that Pope Benedict had pointed to two different interpretations of the council, "the hermeneutics of discontinuity and the hermeneutics of reform".
The Pope saw a combination of renewal and continuity in the sense that the council wanted renewal but did not create a new Church, Cardinal Koch explained.