Cardinal Kasper’s moral ecumenism

In an interview granted to Vatican journalist Andrea Tornielli on September 18, 2014, Cardinal Walter Kasper wondered whether it might be possible to consider that some elements of the sacrament of marriage can be found in a purely civil marriage. He thinks that “the definitive commitment, the mutual love and care, the Christian life, and the public commitment” that unite certain civilly married couples can be considered as elements of a sacramental marriage. These remarried divorcees could therefore be allowed to receive communion.

For the German prelate, just as, according to Vatican II, there are elements of sanctification in other confessions besides the Catholic Church, there could be elements of the sacrament of marriage outside of an actual sacramental marriage. As he passes from doctrinal ecumenism to moral ecumenism, Cardinal Kasper “mercifully” ignores the bond contracted in the sacramental marriage that preceded the civil remarriage, and “pastorally” dissolves the doctrine recalled by Jesus Christ: “That which God has united, let no man put asunder” (Mark 10:9).

Cardinal Kasper, who was already the specialist on “differentiated consensus” with the Lutherans (see Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, October 31, 1999), today becomes the theorist of “consensual difference”: According to him, civil remarriage can not be considered as an absolutely certain sacrament, but as a certain sacrament….regardless. Regardless of all the constant teaching of the Church.

Fr. Alain Lorans