“Personally, I hope that we can use an unofficial text,
prepared by a commission in the bishops’ conference of the United
States, regarding this subject,” he explained.
On October 31, Pope Francis visited Lund, Sweden, a city in
a country with a large Lutheran population, to commemorate the
anniversary of Martin Luther’s Reformation. This anniversary – far from
being a joyful observance considering the separation Luther created
caused long-lasting wounds in the Church – was preceded by countless
preparations, including a visit of a Luther statue in the Vatican and a climate of anticipation for intercommunion by the Pope himself.
Just about a month later, in the Avvenire
interview, Cardinal Kasper has gone a step further, stating that, for
him, intercommunion is just a matter of time. “On the one hand, Lund has
confirmed the ecumenical process and the results of the proceeding
dialogue; on the other hand, it has given it a new thrust.”
Kasper seeks to apply the principle for “remarried”
divorcees to receive Communion under special circumstances to mixed
marriages. That would be a rule of “exception,” or what can be called
the Kasper proposal.
Cardinal Kasper hopes for the admission of Lutherans to Catholic
Communion, particularly in family settings.
“The next declaration will
open the Eucharistic sharing in particular situations, especially in
mixed marriages and families and in countries like Germany and the
United States where this pastoral problem is extremely pressing.”
A “mixed marriage” is a marriage between a Catholic and a
baptized non-Catholic, as explained in the Catechism of the Catholic
Church (CCC 1633).
While mixed marriages are permitted when approval by the bishop is
given, the Catechism warns of the dangers that lie in a mixed
understanding of cult and sacraments, because for Lutherans marriage is
not indissoluble.
“Differences about faith and the very notion of
marriage, but also different religious mentalities, can become sources
of tension in marriage, especially as regards the education of children.
The temptation of religious indifference can then arise" (1634).
The separation caused by Luther and the Thirty Years War
that followed give Cardinal Kasper no cause for concern. Moreover, he
said the Pope had to admit the Church’s fault: “The Pope did certainly
not go to Lund to celebrate, but to confess the sin (shared) of division
[…]”
While head of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Kasper explained
that communion is the ultimate “aim,” rather than a means, of ecumenism
and that it can only be achieved after full visible communion of
Lutherans with the Catholic Church. He hopes for Communion as a means to
resolve the division, seeing in intercommunion the right way of
advancement that is seemingly only halted by “rigid” forces in the
Church.
“But we cannot expect miracles," Cardinal Kasper said. "I
hope that this year (2017 – 500 years after the Reformation) will serve
to complete the way of reciprocal knowledge that encourages dialogue and
brings forth the decision to walk together into the future. We can
remember that the time, the mode, and the place in which full communion
is reached is only in the hand of God.”
While Cardinal Kasper has a different understanding of
Communion, the “Directory of the Application of principles and norms on
Ecumenism,” published by the Vatican and in full continuity with the
teachings of the Second Vatican Council, explains that unity is
understood only as being in connection with the Catholic Church.
“In fact, the fullness of the unity of the Church of Christ
has been maintained within the Catholic Church while other Churches and
ecclesial Communities, though not in full communion with the Catholic
Church, retain in reality a certain communion with it” (No. 18).
This
communion is based on a common understanding of sacraments and on the
nature of the Church itself. “Thus Eucharistic communion is inseparably
linked to full ecclesial communion and its visible expression” (No.
129).
While the Church hopes that “unity, we believe, subsists in
the Catholic Church as something she can never lose, and we hope that
it will continue to increase until the end of time, in the present state
of our relations with the ecclesial Communities of the Reformation of
the 16th century, we have not yet reached agreement about the
significance or sacramental nature or even of the administration of the
sacrament of Confirmation” (No. 101), an indispensable prerequisite for a
“full visible communion.”
The same documents reaffirm that Communion in a mixed
marriage is only possible for the non-Catholic partner if faith in the
sacraments and an understanding (albeit imperfect) of the nature of the
Church is present.
“Although the spouses in a mixed marriage share the
sacraments of baptism and marriage, Eucharistic sharing can only be
exceptional and in each case the norms stated above concerning the
admission of a non-Catholic Christian to Eucharistic communion, as well
as those concerning the participation of a Catholic in Eucharistic
communion in another Church, must be observed” (No. 160).