Vatican II only 'half realised', says cardinal

Many of the impulses of the Second Vatican Council - such as episcopal collegiality and the co-responsibility of the laity - have "only been half-heartedly realised up till now", a senior cardinal has said, reports The Tablet.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, 79, who for nine years worked in the Vatican heading the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, warned that Roman centralism had increased since the Council.

In a lengthy article in the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung to mark the 50th anniversary of Vatican II, the cardinal said the Council still offered "riches" that had yet to be discovered by the Church.