Walter Kasper | |
|---|---|
| President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity | |
 | |
| See | Rottenburg-Stuttgart (Emeritus) |
| Appointed | 3 March 2001 |
| Term ended | 1 July 2010 |
| Predecessor | Edward Idris Cassidy |
| Successor | Kurt Koch |
| Other post | Cardinal Priest of Ognissanti in Via Appia Nuova |
| Previous posts |
|
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 6 April 1957 by Carl Joseph Leiprecht |
| Consecration | 17 June 1989 by Oskar Saier |
| Created cardinal | 21 February 2001 byPope John Paul II |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Walter Kasper (1933-03-05)5 March 1933 (age 92) |
| Nationality | German |
| Denomination | Catholic Church |
| Motto | Veritatem in caritate ("truth in charity") |
| Coat of arms |  |
| Styles of Walter Kasper | |
|---|---|
| |
| Reference style | His Eminence |
| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
| See | Rottenburg-Stuttgart (Emeritus) |
Walter Kasper (born 5 March 1933) is aGerman Catholic prelate who served as President of thePontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity from 2001 to 2010. He was previouslyBishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart from 1989 to 1999.
Born in Heidenheim an der Brenz, Germany, Kasper wasordained apriest on 6 April 1957 byBishop Carl Leiprecht ofRottenburg.
From 1957 to 1958 he was aparochial vicar inStuttgart. He returned to his studies and earned a doctorate indogmatic theology from theUniversity of Tübingen. He was a faculty member at Tübingen from 1958 to 1961 and worked for three years as an assistant toLeo Scheffczyk andHans Küng, who was banned from teaching by Vatican authorities because of his views oncontraception andpapal infallibility.
Kasper later taught dogmatic theology at theUniversity of Münster (1964–1970), rising to become dean of the theological faculty in 1969 and then the same in Tübingen in 1970. In 1983 Kasper taught as a visiting professor atThe Catholic University of America. He was editor of theLexikon für Theologie und Kirche. During his academic years, he apparently by chance met Zhong Fushi, an influential Zen Buddhist Master who subsequently corresponded with him on at least two occasions making reference to the Trappist Monk Thomas Merton. Zhong Fushi in response to Kasper's question of whether Zen is atheistic or pantheistic, responded "Zen does not speak of a Creator (Sōzōshu), but this does not mean we reject Him. Our silence is a form of humility in the face of what cannot be comprehended." In a second letter Zhong Fushi discusses good and evil and how Zen focuses on the transcendental goodness of all things.[1]
Kasper was namedBishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Germany's fourth largest Catholicdiocese, on 17 April 1989. He wasconsecrated as a bishop on 17 June that same year by Archbishop Oskar Saier ofFreiburg im Breisgau; BishopsKarl Lehmann and Franz Kuhnle served as co-consecrators. In 1993 he and other members of the Germanepiscopate signed a pastoral letter which urged allowing divorced and civilly remarried German Catholics to return to thesacraments, to the disapproval of thenCardinal Ratzinger andPope John Paul II.[2] In 1994, he was named co-chair of the International Commission for Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue.
He was elevated to thecardinalate byPope John Paul II in theconsistory of 21 February 2001, asCardinal-Deacon ofOgnissanti in Via Appia Nuova.
Kasper was one of a dozen or more like-minded cardinals and bishops whomet annually from 1995 to 2006 inSt. Gallen, Switzerland, to discuss reforms with respect to the appointment of bishops, collegiality, bishops' conferences, and the primacy of the papacy as well as the Church's approach to sexual morality. They differed among themselves in varying degrees, but shared the view that CardinalJoseph Ratzinger was not the candidate they hoped to see elected at the next conclave.[3]
Upon the death of John Paul II on 2 April 2005, Kasper and all major Vatican officials automatically lost their positions pending the election of a new pope. He was acardinal elector in the2005 papal conclave. On the following 21 April,Pope Benedict XVI confirmed him as President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
On 21 February 2011 he was promoted to Cardinal-Priest, having made the option for such. Therefore, the church ofOgnissanti became apro hac vice title, but will again be a cardinal diaconate for his future successor there.
Kasper was the oldest cardinal eligible to vote in thePapal conclave of 2013, having been 79 when the Papacy became vacant. His 80th birthday was on 5 March 2013, five days after the resignation ofPope Benedict XVI, on 28 February 2013. His eligibility to serve as an elector ended when that conclave concluded.
On 3 March 1999, Kasper was appointed Secretary of thePontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity – and as such, President of thePontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews – and resigned from his post in Rottenburg-Stuttgart.
Kasper recognized that theCongregation for the Doctrine of the Faith documentDominus Iesus (2000) was offensive to manyJewish people and was thus somewhat critical of its presentation. However, he affirmed the validity of its content, and called it "not the end of dialogue but a challenge for a further and even more intensive dialogue" between Catholics and Jews.[4]
In 2003, he wrote a text calledAnti-semitism: A wound to be healed for the European Day of Jewish Culture.[5] On 10 July 2004, at the Latin-American Rabbinical Seminary of Buenos Aires,the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation and the Angelo Roncalli Committee presented Kasper the "Memorial Mural Award" for his lifetime dedication to the causes of understanding and reconciliation between Jews and Catholics.[6]
Kasper was a member of theInternational Theological Commission, an advisory body to theCongregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. On several occasions, in his capacity of President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, he led the annual official delegation of the Holy See to theEcumenical Patriarchate inConstantinople for the Feast of St Andrew the Apostle. In August 2007, he led the Catholic delegation to the funeral of PatriarchTeoctist of theRomanian Orthodox Church.
In January 2009, Kasper toldThe New York Times that he had little, if any, input on whether to lift the excommunication of four bishops of theSociety of Saint Pius X.[7] Kasper was distancing himself from the scandal that ensued when it transpired that one of the bishops,Richard Williamson, was found to have claimed that reports aboutThe Holocaust were exaggerated and that no Jews died in Nazi gas chambers. As the Vatican official responsible for relations with the Jewish religion, Kasper felt it necessary to comment on the action and the process leading up to the lifting of the excommunications. He said that: "Up to now people in theVatican have spoken too little with each other and have not checked where problems might arise." He said that in lifting the excommunications "there were misunderstandings and management errors in the Curia."[8]
In September 2010, Kasper withdrew from the papal visit toGreat Britain, after reportedly saying thatHeathrow Airport gives the impression of a Third World country and that the United Kingdom is marked by "a new and aggressive atheism".[9] In an interview with a German magazine, he was quoted as saying: "When you land at Heathrow you think at times you have landed in a Third World country". Kasper's secretary explained it as "a description of the many different people that live in Britain at the moment".[10] He said that when one wears a cross on theBritish Airways "you are discriminated against", a reference to theBritish Airways cross controversy. British Airways said that Kasper had been "seriously misinformed" in his claims about the airline, and that "It is completely untrue that we discriminate against Christians or members of any faith".[9]
A spokesman for the Church in Britain said that Kasper's remarks were not the views of the Vatican or of the Church.[9] The cardinal's secretary said that Kasper had decided not to travel because gout made it difficult for him to walk.[10] He also explained the cardinal used "aggressive atheism" to describe people likeRichard Dawkins, a prominentatheist, who have been very critical of the Pope and talked about making a "citizens arrest" of the Pope while in Britain.[10]
Kasper has criticized theChurch of England policies in relation to female priests and the elevation of women to the episcopate. He expressed his views in the address given to the Church of England Bishops' Meeting at 5 June 2006.[11] He said that the ordination of women as bishops would "call into question what was recognized by theSecond Vatican Council (Unitatis Redintegratio, 13), that the Anglican Communion occupied 'a special place' among churches and ecclesial communities of the West." He warned that the "restoration of full Church communion ... would realistically no longer exist following the introduction of the ordination of women to episcopal office."[12] He spoke at the 2008Lambeth Conference, criticizing sharply the departures from Christian orthodoxy taken on women clergy and episcopate and even more by some member churches of theAnglican Communion on allowing the blessing of same-sex unions and non-celibate homosexual clergy. He called at the occasion for a newOxford Movement to rise among Anglicanism.[13]
Pope Francis, on 17 March 2013, four days after his election as Pope, called Kasper "a clever theologian, a good theologian", in the course of a sermon in which he reported that Kasper's book on mercy "did me a lot of good".[2][14]
Kasper met with controversy for his proposal to admit toCommunion Catholic couples who have remarried outside of the Church while still being canonically married to a prior spouse according to Catholic doctrine. On 21 February 2014, Kasper said at aconsistory in Rome that:
"The Church cannot question the words of Jesus on the indissolubility of marriage. Whoever expects the Consistory and the Synod to come up with 'easy', general solutions that apply to everyone, are mistaken. But given the difficulties which families today face and the huge rise in the number of failed marriages, new paths can be explored in order to respond to the deep needs of divorced people who have remarried as part of a civil union, who recognise their failure, convert and after a period of penance ask to be re-admitted to the sacraments."[15]
The proposal was met with hostility by some conservative cardinals, includingGerhard Müller,Raymond Burke,Walter Brandmüller,Carlo Caffarra andVelasio De Paolis, who co-authored the bookRemaining in the Truth of Christ: Marriage and Communion in the Catholic Church, released in English in October 2014, to refute Kasper's proposal.[16] Kasper later admitted that he didn't have Pope Francis' support on his proposal.[17] He praised Francis' 2016 apostolic exhortationAmoris Laetitia, saying that the correct interpretation is that it allows the admission of divorced and remarried people to communion in some individual cases.[18]
During theThird Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in 2014, Kasper told reporters that since African, Asian, and Middle Eastern countries have a "taboo" against homosexuality, "they should not tell us too much what we have to do."[19] Once the story broke, he denied that he made any such comment. The reporter who wrote the story, Edward Pentin, subsequently produced a recording of the conversation, which verified that the Cardinal had made those statements.[19] Cardinal Raymond Burke called Kasper's remarks "profoundly sad and scandalous".[20] Kasper subsequently confirmed that he had had the conversation, and offered this response for one of his remarks:
If one of my remarks about Africans was perceived as demeaning or insulting, then I am honestly sorry. That was and is not my intention, and not my view at all. No one will deny that Africa's culture is different from Europe's in many respects. But I have been in Africa too often not to esteem African culture highly.[21]
Kasper also said parts of the Catholic media were engaged in a "deliberate dirty tricks" campaign against him, and said that "The fact that Catholic media (and unfortunately a cardinal in person) should participate in it, in order to tear down another position morally, is shameful."[21][22]
In his bookThe God of Jesus Christ, Kasper concluded that what Jesus effected was to give suffering "eternal import, the import of love." Kasper points out thatGregory of Nyssa andAugustine of Hippo, working out of the New Testament, speak of a God who can freely choose to feel compassion, which implies suffering. Kasper adds that: "It isOrigen who gave us the clearest statement. In Origen's words: 'First God suffered, then he came down. What was the suffering he accepted for us? The suffering of love.' Origen adds that it is not just the Son but also the Father who suffers so. This is made possible by God's freedom in love."[23]
Kasper's bookJesus the Christ (1974) treats Christology in three manners: a contemporary approach, a historical approach and a factual approach. After these three approaches have been exhausted, the Christological themes of resurrection, mystery, and priesthood are treated. Ecclesiology is seen as part of Christology in this book because the Church is oriented towards Christ in his person, since Christ did not only say things, but he also did things.[24]
| Catholic Church titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart 4 April 1989 – 31 May 1999 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Pierre François Marie Joseph Duprey | Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity 16 March 1999 – 21 February 2001 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Cardinal Deacon of Ognissanti in Via Appia Nuova 21 February 2001 – 21 February 2011 | Himself as Cardinal Priest |
| Preceded by | President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity 3 March 2001 – 1 July 2010 | Succeeded by |
| President of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews 3 March 2001 – 1 July 2010 | ||
| Himself as Cardinal Deacon | Cardinal Priest 'pro hac vice' of Ognissanti in Via Appia Nuova 21 February 2011 – | Incumbent |
