“Previously, the watchword was that faith divides while action unites. Today we almost have to say the opposite,” the Swiss prelate states in an interview given to Tribune Chrétienne published this Wednesday, September 2.
Koch, who has led the Vatican body responsible for ecumenical relations since 2010, notes that over the past decades Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants have managed to reach agreements on some matters of faith while new fractures have emerged precisely in the moral and anthropological sphere.
“We have been able to reach ecumenical consensus on numerous questions of faith. But new tensions and divisions have appeared in the ethical sphere, especially on issues of marriage, family, sexuality, and gender on the one hand, and on bioethical questions, particularly those related to the beginning and end of human life, on the other,” he explains.
Koch calls for bringing moral issues into ecumenical dialogue
The Vatican prefect believes these differences cannot be left outside conversations among the various Christian confessions. In his view, ecumenical dialogues must also address ethical controversies and attempt to reach consensus on them.
“If the Christian Churches cannot speak with one voice on the fundamental questions concerning the human person and life in society, the Christian voice will become increasingly weaker in Europe’s secularized societies,” Koch warns.
The differences highlighted by the cardinal have become particularly visible in some Western Protestant communities, which over recent decades have modified their positions on issues such as same-sex marriage, homosexuality, gender identity, or ordained ministry.
A recent example is found in the Church of Norway, whose bishops were received by Leo XIV at the Vatican at the end of August. The Norwegian Lutheran confession has ordained women since 1961 and has celebrated same-sex marriages since 2017. During that trip, the delegation was also scheduled to meet with Koch himself.
Koch does not single out any specific Church in the interview nor does he evaluate these decisions individually. His warning focuses on the consequences that moral divergences have for ecumenism itself.
The cardinal includes in the same problem the bioethical questions relating to the “beginning and end of human life.” Hence he considers it necessary that these matters form an explicit part of the dialogues among Christian confessions.
Secularization cannot be the foundation of unity
Europe’s progressive secularization could, under certain circumstances, favor greater cooperation among Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants, Koch acknowledges, but the cardinal rejects the idea that Christianity’s loss of social influence could become the ultimate reason for ecumenism.
“Secularization constitutes a common challenge for all Christians in France,” he explains. This reality can help them discover what they have in common and encourage them “to give witness together” before the challenges of French society.
However, Koch immediately introduces a distinction: “To recover the unity of Christians, secularization can certainly constitute an important occasion, but it cannot be its true reason.”
The foundation of that unity, he maintains, “can only lie in the effort to recover unity in faith,” specifically “in that apostolic faith which is transmitted and entrusted to each Christian in baptism.”
The statement thus places the doctrinal question at the center of ecumenical dialogue and rules out a conception of Christian unity limited to practical cooperation in the face of advancing secularization.
“It cannot be a matter of calling into question” the primacy of the Pope
Another issue addressed by Koch is the primacy of the Bishop of Rome, one of the main historical difficulties in achieving full communion between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches.
The cardinal acknowledges that “many Christian communities consider the question of the Papacy an important obstacle” on the path to unity. At the same time, he recalls that for the Catholic Church “the ministry of unity of the successor of Peter is a precious gift of the Holy Spirit given to the Church.”
Koch maintains that the Catholic Church cannot reserve that gift for itself, but must also offer it to other Churches and ecclesial communities. Yet he sets an explicit limit to this search.
“It cannot be a matter, in doing so, of calling into question Catholic doctrine on the primacy of the successor of Peter,” he states.
The prefect refers to the encyclical Ut unum sint, published by Saint John Paul II in 1995. In it, the Polish Pope invited the leaders of other Churches and Christian communities to enter into dialogue on a form of exercising primacy that could cease to be a factor of division without renouncing its mission.
The Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity published in 2024, with the approval of Francis, the study document The Bishop of Rome. Primacy and Synodality in Ecumenical Dialogues and in the Responses to the Encyclical Ut unum sint, which for the first time gathered the responses received to the encyclical and the contributions of the various ecumenical dialogues on primacy.
Koch now explains that the work of his dicastery consists in compiling and evaluating the responses of the different Churches and ecclesial communities before considering how primacy might be exercised.
“Only on the basis of this work would it then be possible to consider the manner in which papal primacy could be exercised. The result should then be presented to the Pope to learn his opinion,” he indicates.
“One cannot be Christian and antisemitic”
Koch is also president of the Commission for Religious Relations with Judaism, integrated into the same dicastery. From that responsibility he warns of “an alarming increase of antisemitism in European societies.”
Faced with this situation, he maintains that Christians have the responsibility to oppose these trends by recalling that “one cannot be both Christian and antisemitic.”
“The popes have stated this clearly and repeatedly since the Second Vatican Council,” he adds.
At the same time, the cardinal points to the need to pay attention to Christians in Israel and throughout the Middle East, who are experiencing a difficult situation as a consequence of armed conflicts.
Koch recalls at this point words of Leo XIV on the need to “continue vigorously the precious dialogue between Jews and Catholics” even “in these difficult times, marked by conflicts and misunderstandings.”
The prelate also mentions the position maintained by the Holy See in favor of a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians and considers that this issue must also be addressed within Judeo-Christian dialogue.
Koch hopes Leo XIV will strengthen the faith of French Catholics
The interview concludes with the upcoming visit of Leo XIV to France. Koch hopes that French Catholics will prepare for the trip in such a way that it can become “an encouraging event that allows for a deepening of the faith.”
The prefect identifies three major axes of the visit: education, science, and culture during the Pontiff’s stop at UNESCO in Paris; “the renewal of faith and the deepening of Marian devotion,” together with special attention to the sick, in Lourdes; and “the rediscovery of Europe’s Christian roots at the service of peace and unity” during the commemoration of Robert Schuman in Metz, in northeastern France.
Koch concludes by addressing French Catholics directly and recovering the historical designation of France as the eldest daughter of the Church.
“I wish the Catholic Church in France, eldest daughter of the Church, that the encounters with Pope Leo XIV, through his word and the celebrations of holy Mass, may strengthen the bonds of the Church in France with the Holy Father and with Rome, and may arouse a new joy of belonging to a universal Church.”