Product Code Database
Walter Kasper (born 5 March 1933) is a German Catholic prelate who served as President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity from 2001 to 2010. He was previously Bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart from 1989 to 1999.
From 1957 to 1958 he was a Vicar in Stuttgart. He returned to his studies and earned a doctorate in dogmatic theology from the University of Tübingen. He was a faculty member at Tübingen from 1958 to 1961 and worked for three years as an assistant to Leo Scheffczyk and Hans Küng, who was banned from teaching by Vatican authorities because of his views on Birth control and papal infallibility.
Kasper later taught dogmatic theology at the University 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 at The Catholic University of America. He was editor of the Lexikon 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.
Kasper was one of a dozen or more like-minded cardinals and bishops who met annually from 1995 to 2006 in St. 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 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was not the candidate they hoped to see elected at the next conclave.
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 a cardinal elector in the 2005 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 of Ognissanti became a pro hac vice title, but will again be a cardinal diaconate for his future successor there.
Kasper was the oldest cardinal eligible to vote in the Papal conclave of 2013, having been 79 when the Papacy became vacant. His 80th birthday was on 5 March 2013, five days after the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, on 28 February 2013. His eligibility to serve as an elector ended when that conclave concluded.
In 2003, he wrote a text called Anti-semitism: A wound to be healed for the European Day of Jewish Culture. 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.
A spokesman for the Church in Britain said that Kasper's remarks were not the views of the Vatican or of the Church. The cardinal's secretary said that Kasper had decided not to travel because gout made it difficult for him to walk. He also explained the cardinal used "aggressive atheism" to describe people like Richard Dawkins, a prominent atheism, who have been very critical of the Pope and talked about making a "citizens arrest" of the Pope while in Britain.
Kasper's book Jesus 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.Walter Kasper, Jesus the Christ, translated by V. Green, Kent – New Jersey 1976, p.16
Criticism of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion
Kasper has criticized the Church 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. He said that the ordination of women as bishops would "call into question what was recognized by the Second 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." He spoke at the 2008 Lambeth Conference, criticizing sharply the departures from Christian orthodoxy taken on women clergy and episcopate and even more by some member churches of the Anglican Communion on allowing the blessing of same-sex unions and non-celibate homosexual clergy. He called at the occasion for a new Oxford Movement to rise among Anglicanism.
Pope Francis
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".
Proposal of admission at communion of remarried couples
Kasper met with controversy for his proposal to admit to Communion 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 a Papal consistory 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." Kasper's proposal for remarried divorcees, Article By Andrea Tornielli, Vatican Insider, La Stampa, 21 February 2014
The proposal was met with hostility by some conservative cardinals, including Gerhard Müller, Raymond Burke, Walter Brandmüller, Carlo Caffarra and Velasio De Paolis, who co-authored the book Remaining in the Truth of Christ: Marriage and Communion in the Catholic Church, released in English in October 2014, to refute Kasper's proposal. Kasper later admitted that he didn't have Pope Francis' support on his proposal. He praised Francis' 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia, saying that the correct interpretation is that it allows the admission of divorced and remarried people to communion in some individual cases.
2014 General Synod
During the Third 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." 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. Cardinal Raymond Burke called Kasper's remarks "profoundly sad and scandalous". Kasper subsequently confirmed that he had had the conversation, and offered this response for one of his remarks:
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."
On Jesus Christ
In his book The God of Jesus Christ, Kasper concluded that what Jesus effected was to give suffering "eternal import, the import of love." Kasper points out that Gregory of Nyssa and Augustine 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 is Origen 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."Walter Kasper, The God of Jesus Christ. Crossroad (1986), pp. 191,195.
Works
Further reading
External links
Categories: 1933 Births, Living People, 20th-century German Male Writers, 20th-century German Non-fiction Writers, 20th-century German Roman Catholic Bishops, 20th-century German Roman Catholic Priests, 21st-century German Cardinals, 21st-century German Male Writers, 21st-century German Non-fiction Writers, Academic Staff Of The University Of Münster, Cardinals Created By Pope John Paul Ii, Catholic University Of America Faculty, German Male Non-fiction Writers, German Religious Writers, German Roman Catholic Writers, International Theological Commission, People From Heidenheim, Pontifical Council For Promoting Christian Unity, Recipients Of The Order Of Merit Of Baden-württemberg, Roman Catholic Bishops Of Rottenburg
|
|
