Cardinal - Pope Benedict and Cardinal Sarah stopped Francis going further on female ordination and relaxation of celibacy
Kasper: Benedict XVI and Sarah intervened in Francis's reforms
Can the Pope decide alone whether women may become priests? No, says Cardinal Walter Kasper. He believes that Francis wanted to change more than he ultimately did. But Benedict XVI and Cardinal Sarah intervened successfully.
According to Cardinal Walter Kasper, Pope Francis wanted to promote relaxations on the issue of celibacy and access to the priesthood, but also did not want to risk a rupture or split in the Catholic Church. "My assessment is that Francis certainly wanted to change something, but Pope Emeritus Benedict, together with Cardinal Robert Sarah, successfully intervened at the time," Kasper said in an interview in the June issue of the magazine "Cicero" (Thursday).
The position of women in society and in the Church has, in the cardinal's view, become "a mega-issue." And it urgently needs to be further discussed, said the 92-year-old. Much has been done in numerous local churches and also in Rome, and women are taking on roles that were previously only permitted for clergy, Kasper said.
Pope cannot decide alone
At the same time, he recalled the Pope's role in this matter: "It is certainly wrong to think that the Pope, if he only wanted to, can decide alone whether women will also be able to access the priesthood in the future." For such fundamental questions, the Pope needs a global, theologically based moral consensus within the entire Church, the cardinal said. "Such a consensus is not foreseeable, not only among bishops, but also among believers and theologians." In Germany, too, there continues to be both approval and rejection.
In Kasper's view, the issue of homosexuality has undergone a change in the Western world in recent decades, largely leading to respect for different orientations. "However, this has not prevailed in the Catholic Church in the West or in other cultures," the cardinal said. He cited the African Church as an example. There, the issue of polygamy is much more virulent. The Church must endure these tensions. It must face up to modernity, but not unreflectively adapt to the spirit of the times.
Kasper sees shortcomings in the Synodal Path
In Kasper's view, the Synodal Path of the Catholic Church in Germany, contrary to its claim, does not include everyone. "From this perspective, the Synodal Path is simply not a synod, not a shared journey together," he said. He neither disputes the synodal principle nor the need for reform of the Church, the cardinal said. A new beginning is needed. But a renewed Church cannot be a new Church, said the 92-year-old. The Church is in the flow of tradition. "The Church cannot be renewed by starting with structural reform. Of course, we also need structural renewal, but this must come from an inner spiritual renewal."
The Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), which supports the reform process, has earned great merit as a voice in society and politics. "It urgently needs to return to this, especially today," said Kasper. However, when it comes to matters of faith, the broad church base and the voice of other local churches should not be ignored. "Some things have gone wrong. We Germans often think we can do this alone and tell others what to do," said Kasper. The 92-year-old is a retired cardinal of the Curia and former president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
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