Why is Cardinal Walter Kasper still in charge of anything at the Vatican?

And who will finally declare “ecumenism” dead?

(Posted Dec. 17, 2007 www.RemnantNewspaper.com) In a recent undated report by The Catholic Herald online, we learn that Cardinal Walter Kasper, the modernist termite who still holds the position of head of the Pontifical Council for “Christian Unity” (PCCU) is opposed to the idea “that a breakaway group of Anglicans might be received into the Catholic Church en masse,” and that he opposes it “despite Benedict XVI’s personal support for such a move.”1

This is not at all surprising.  We need to remind ourselves that Kasper, Pope John Paul II’s choice to head the PCCU, openly declared within days of his elevation to the rank of cardinal in 2001 that “The decision of Vatican II to which the Pope [John Paul II] adheres is absolutely clear: Today we no longer understand ecumenism in the sense of a return, by which the others would ‘be converted’ and return to being ‘catholics.’ This was expressly abandoned by Vatican II.”2 Recall also that in early 2003 Kasper, addressing a Catholic-Anglican conference, publicly denied the historicity of the Apostolic Succession (which he would replace with a “communion in faith”) and called for a “re-evaluation” in the “new ecumenical context” of Pope Leo XIII’s infallible declaration on the invalidity of Anglican orders. Here, for any doubters, are the Termite’s words on that occasion:

As I see the problem and its possible solution, it is not a question of apostolic succession in the sense of an historical chain of laying on of hands running back through the centuries to one of the apostles; this would be a very mechanical and individualistic vision, which by the way historically could hardly be proved and ascertained…. To stand in the apostolic succession is not a matter of an individual historical chain but of collegial membership in a collegium, which as a whole goes back to the apostles by sharing the same apostolic faith…

It is beyond the scope of our present context to discuss what this means for a re–evaluation [!] of Apostolicae curae (1896) of Pope Leo XIII, who declared Anglican orders null and void, a decision which still stands between our Churches. Without doubt this decision, as Cardinal Willebrands had already affirmed, must be understood in our new ecumenical context in which our communion in faith and mission has considerably grown. A final solution can only be found in the larger context of full communion in faith, sacramental life and shared apostolic mission. 3

The “breakaway group” of Anglicans now seeking union with Rome is composed of 60 Anglican parishes and 60 Anglican bishops who can no longer tolerate the lunacy abounding in the “Anglican Communion,” including the ordination of women and homosexuals. All told this group of disaffected Anglicans is said to comprise some 400,000 souls.  Confronted with the prospect of a mass return to Rome, Kasper told the Catholic Herald “It’s not our policy to bring that many Anglicans to Rome.”

Our policy? And what “policy” is that? I will tell you: it is the same policy— “ecumenism”—whose destructive impact on the Church’s mission over the past forty years is beyond all human calculation. Surely even the most obtuse observers of the ecclesial crisis have by now discerned that “ecumenism,” that conceptually empty neologism so full of practical mischief, means in practice essentially this: Do not convert to Roman Catholicism; do not return to Rome.  Rather, keep talking and Rome will eventually come around to your way of thinking. Or not. It doesn’t matter.  For “ecumenism” is all about the talking. And the talking, and the talking.

To be perfectly fair to Kasper, he did also state to The Catholic Herald: “Of course, as a Catholic I am happy if one person joins our Catholic Church but I doubt such a big group is coming—I think there are still many questions to solve first.”  But if Kasper would be happy to see one Anglican conversion, why would he not be vastly happier to see 400,000 Anglicans join “our Catholic Church”?

The answer, of course, is that while a quiet conversion here or there is tolerable according to Kasper’s “policy,” a mass conversion would threaten the very existence of the Anglican “Church,” a result that would be grossly contrary to the “policy.” According to the “policy,” the task of the Pontifical Council for “Christian Unity” is precisely to prevent Christian unity by insuring the continued existence of the very thing that prevents it: a multiplicity of Protestant sects which have been granted an equal claim to truth and an equal title to toleration under John Locke’s Law of Toleration, the super-dogma of the civic religion of the post-Catholic West that even Catholic prelates now profess (precisely as Locke hoped). Thus, as Kasper told The Catholic Herald: “We are on good terms with the Archbishop of Canterbury and as much as we can we are helping him to keep the Anglican community together.”(†Yes, Kasper sees it as his job to stop 400,000 Anglicans from returning to Rome.

Knowing all this, the Anglicans seeking communion with Rome want nothing to do with Kasper and his worse-than-useless pontifical council. As The Catholic Herald notes, the Anglican bishops involved “sent a letter to Rome last month requesting ‘full, corporate and sacramental union’…But the bishops did not send their letter to Cardinal Kasper. Instead they addressed it to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), where, it is understood, they expected a warmer reception.” That is, they expected to find at the CDF someone who actually believes that all the Protestants should return to Rome, it being quite obvious that Cardinal Kasper does not believe this.

The Catholic Herald further reports: “Vatican insiders say that Benedict XVI is scrutinizing the matter very closely and believes that the TAC [Traditional Anglican Communion] is setting out a path that other Anglicans will follow. One source said the Pope even gave his blessing to the TAC’s plenary assembly in October, when 60 bishops agreed to seek full communion with Rome. Each bishop reportedly signed a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the church altar.”  

If this report is correct, it appears that the Pope may well override Kasper’s “policy” and approve a mass conversion and reunification with Rome (presumably with the necessary reordinations) that could be the death knell not only for the “Anglican Communion” but the whole infernal “ecumenical movement,” which has revealed itself to be nothing but a movement away from the Catholic Church.

Pope Benedict has established a turning point in world history by liberating the Latin Mass from its preposterous captivity since 1970. Not for him are the scandalous ecumenical novelties of his immediate predecessor: the joint vespers services, the “Liturgies of the Word,” and the bestowal of pectoral crosses on laymen in bishops’ costumes. Gone are the insanely inappropriate ad hoc papal liturgical productions of that hubristic vandal, Piero Marini. And, with his new encyclical Spe Salvi, which contains not one quotation from Vatican II, Pope Benedict has refocused the attention of the entire Church on precisely what John Paul II admitted has been completely obscured by the Council’s “vision” of an “eschatology of the Church and of the world”: death, judgment, heaven and hell.

Things are changing. The long march of the Jacobins through our Church has slowed, and may even be at a halt. And we traditionalists—we Catholics, sinners all, who have tried to hold fast to Tradition in the midst of a seemingly endless tempest of revolutionary novelty—can only be grateful, can only rejoice.  But the crisis is far from over, and many things have not changed. Among these: Russia still has not been consecrated to the Immaculate Heart. The Third Secret of Fatima still has not been disclosed in its entirety.  “Ecumenism” still continues to stifle the missionary impulse of the Church, producing a state of captivity just as serious as the now-ended captivity of the liturgy. And Cardinal Kasper, a manifest enemy of the Faith, is still head of the PCCU.

Let us pray to Saint Nicholas for three Christmas gifts, among the others we wish for the Church: First, the Consecration of Russia—and nothing but Russia—to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  Second, the text containing the words of the Virgin Mary that doubtless explain the vision of “the Bishop dressed in white” and thus complete the Third Secret. Third, the removal of Cardinal Walter Kasper as head of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, gift-wrapped with a declaration that his “policy” has been revoked and that henceforth the goal of “ecumenism” shall be clearly and unambiguously that enunciated by Blessed Pius IX, whose miter Benedict wore when he elevated 23 cardinals in November of this year: “The return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it, for in the past they have unhappily left it.”

A blessed Christmas to one and all.

Notes:

[1]“Cardinal Pours Cold Water on Union With Rebel Anglican Group,” now cited at www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1935763/posts.

^[2]Adista, February 26, 2001: “La decisione del Vaticano II alla quale il papa si attiene, è assolutamente chiara: noi intendiamo l’ecumene oggi non più nel senso dell’ecumene del ritorno, secondo il quale gli altri devono ‘convertirsi’ e diventare ‘cattolici.’ Questo è stato espressamente abbandonato dal Vaticano II.”

[3] The Tablet, May 24: 2003.