Vatican official says Christians must recover spiritual inspiration

Published: 2008-01-25

ROME (CNS) -- Divided Christians need to recover the original spiritual inspiration of the ecumenical movement, always ensuring that it is grounded in a desire to proclaim salvation in Jesus Christ more effectively, said Cardinal Walter Kasper. Mergers to form a mega-Christian church are not the goal, said the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Precisely because it takes denominational differences seriously, "spiritual ecumenism suffers from the wounds caused by the divisions within the church," the cardinal said at a Jan. 24 ceremony at Centro Pro Unione, a dialogue and study center operated by the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement. The friars, whose founder, Father Paul Wattson, began the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 100 years ago, presented their Christian Unity Award to Cardinal Kasper's council and to the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches. The award recognized the two offices for their 40 years of joint work organizing, planning and promoting the week of prayer worldwide. The Rev. John Gibaut, a Canadian Anglican and director of the Faith and Order Commission, said the week of prayer is a concentrated occasion to gather the prayers for the unity of the church that are offered continuously around the world, either implicitly when the Our Father is recited or explicitly in the eucharistic prayer.

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