Christians need courage, patience in work for unity, cardinal says

Published: 2004-11-12

ROCCA DI PAPA, Italy (CNS) -- Perseverance, courage, patience and hope are necessary as Christians continue to work and pray for unity, said Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The council gathered Catholic bishops from around the world, representatives from 27 other Christian communities and ecumenical experts Nov. 11-13 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council's Decree on Ecumenism. The meeting opened on a cold, rainy day at a retreat center in Rocca di Papa, outside Rome, but the atmosphere inside was warm as the 260 bishops, priests and theologians who have worked together for Christian unity celebrated past success and looked toward the future. "We no longer have the ecumenical enthusiasm of the period immediately following the council, but we cannot say -- as some do -- that ecumenism is going through an ice age or an ecumenical winter," Cardinal Kasper told reporters Nov. 10. Instead, he said, the ecumenical dialogue is in "a stage of maturation or of necessary clarification."

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