Cardinal Kasper offers Moscow to put up

President of the Papal Council for the promotion of Christian unity Cardinal Walter Casper is confident in the need to restore the ecumenical dialogue, despite the fanaticism and scandals associated with disagreements between Western and Eastern Christians.

“We set the altar against the altar,” the Corriere Della Sera newspaper quotes in today's publication of the word cardinal (translation of the material on the website inopressa.ru ). Yesterday, in the city of Bari, where the relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, revered by both Orthodox and Catholics, rest, Cardinal Casper announced a program aimed at overcoming the split between Rome and Moscow. This was done before the end of the Eucharistic Congress, which on the coming Sunday will finish its work in the presence of Pope Benedict XVI . Ecumenism "has political significance" said the cardinal. If Europe has become a "weaker point of Christianity", then this is a negative consequence of disagreements. A "union is needed to return to the single roots," he emphasized.

"We have no intention to turn into Catholic countries where you, Orthodox brothers, preached the Gospel for many centuries. The so -called proselytism is not our policy and our strategy. But we also ask you to put an end to what we can call the worst proselytism on your part, that is, scandalous practice of crossing," said Cardinal Casper in conversation with the conversation with the conversation with Archbishop of Yaroslavl and Rostov Cyril. At the same time, he did not mention specifically the name of the Patriarch of Moscow, but spoke with the "sad" about the polemic repeated after the death of Voitla, "even before he was buried."

Casper said in conclusion: "There is no ecumenism without forgiveness and reconciliation. And calls to others will not help change the course, change and repent, and repeat all this in an interview as a chorus. Changes and updates should begin in each of us."