Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, the head of the Anglican
Communion, has awarded the Lambeth Cross to Cardinal Walter Kasper.
The
award, begun in 1939, is given to non-Anglicans who have worked to
promote Christian unity.
Cardinal Kasper, who served as president the Pontifical Council for
Promoting Christian Unity from 2001 to 2010, recounted in his address:
I always was eager to understand better Anglicanism. Once you donated me one of your interesting books on "Anglican identities". I said: "O good, since long time I want to understand, what is the Anglican identity." You answered: "Look on, it's about Anglican identities." I know, here I touch a problem, a problem which is not only yours but ours, because when one member suffers, the whole body of Christ is suffering …
Cardinal Kasper added that he saw two “fundamental problems” to face in
ecumenical dialogue.
The first is “What does it mean to confess the one
holy, catholic and apostolic Church and therefore what does it mean to
realize this catholicity in its non confessional but all embracing
original meaning. What does it mean to be the one Church of Christ in
the many churches?”
The second is “How to approach with our message the present modern or
postmodern mentality in our secularized and pluralistic Western society.
Here difficult ethical and pastoral problems arise and our faithfulness
to the Gospel message is challenged. But what means faithfulness beyond
fundamentalism and liberalism? These are not easy common questions even
the answers are sometimes different.”
SIC: CC/INT'L