Cardinal Koch visits Germany

From 12 to 16 March 2023, Cardinal Kurt Koch, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity (DPCU), visited Germany. He was accompanied by Fr Augustinus Sander OSB, the DPCU official responsible for relations with the Lutherans.

At the invitation of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany (VELKD), Cardinal Koch addressed the Bishops' Conference of the VELKD during its study day at the Lutheran monastery of Loccum on 13 March. In his lecture "Welche Einheit suchen wir? Reflexionen zum Ziel der Ökumenischen Bewegung in katholischer Sicht" ["Which unity are we seeking? Reflections on the Goal of the Ecumenical Movement from a Catholic Perspective"], he addressed the criteria for the unity of the church and emphasised the intrinsic bond of confessional and ecclesial fellowship. He valued the Leuenberg Agreement as an intra-Protestant model of unity, although he could not identify in it a suitable concept for Protestant-Catholic communion.

The meeting in Loccum was accompanied by a moment of common prayer in the high choir of the former Cistercian church. During the evening service, known as the traditional Loccum "Hora", Cardinal Koch gave a homily on "Christliche Freude, die in der Gewissheit des Glaubens gründet" [Christian joy founded on the certainty of faith"].

On 15 March, during a study day on "The Future of Ecumenism" at the Confessional Institute in Bensheim, he again explained the Catholic understanding of unity, distinguishing the Catholic concept from the model represented by the Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe (GEKE/ CPCE), which on the basis of the Leuenberg Agreement of 1973 enables communion between Lutheran, Reformed, United Protestant, Methodist and pre-Reformation churches. The particular ecumenical challenge, he said, is to find a deeper consensus on the meaning of the personal episcopate as a basic ecclesial form.

On 16 March, he visited the Ecumenical Centre in Frankfurt for a meeting with the Executive Board of the Association of Christian Churches in Germany [Arbeitsgemeinschaft Christlicher Kirchen in Deutschland - ACK], which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. Cardinal Koch thanked the ACK for its stewardship of the importance of multilateral ecumenism. At the same time, he encouraged them to unite in all theologically possible ways for ecumenical collaboration.

_{Photos: epd-Bild/ Jens Schulze, epd-Bild/ Heike Lyding, ACK.}