“Absolutely in favour” of the proposal “of extending cooperation between the Conference of European Churches and the Council of European Bishops Conferences”. “But I do not think Ccee may be integrated into Kek”. This is how card. Jean-Pierre Ricard, archbishop of Bordeaux and deputy president of Ccee, replies – in an interview published today on the Catholic daily paper “La Croix” – to the proposal made a few days ago in Lyons by Patriarch Bartholomew I, for the Catholic Church to become a member of a “conference of all the Christian Churches of Europe”. Such cooperation – the cardinal points out – we already have it”. But integrating the two bodies together doesn’t seem to be possible, because – Ricard explains – “this is not the purpose of Ccee, which is a place of encounter, work and mutual information between the presidents of the Bishops Conferences”. “There are – the archbishop goes on – forms of cooperation that should be expanded or sought without suppressing the existing bodies. The problem of Kek is the problem of the Ecumenical Council of the Churches: what is its ecclesiological nature? Is it a ‘super-Church’? A platform for the encounter of the Churches? A place for talking and taking majority decisions? This needs to be clarified”. Then, there is another issue, i.e. the differences on ethical matters that remain “within Kek” as well, especially “between Protestant and Orthodox Churches”.
© SIR 22 luglio 2009