I've been thinking about the pope's trip to the UK, about Cardinal Kasper's remarks and the pope's remarks. Today I'll post about Kasper, tomorrow the pope. Here's a link to the BBC story on what he said, and I've quoted him, with my own comments on each of his statements .....
What Cardinal Walter Kasper said about the UK ...
When asked why so many Britons had expressed resentment towards Pope Benedict, the cardinal replied: "England is today a secularised [literal translation], pluralistic country. "When you land at Heathrow Airport, you sometimes think you might have landed in a Third World country," Cardinal Kasper told Focus.
Read Catherine Pepinster's piece in the Guardian, Cardinal Kasper take note: the Catholic church in Britain is full of immigrants, which says in part ...
"But what is truly baffling about Kasper's comments about the third world in Britain, the idea that this country is full of people who are not from Christian Europe, is that these are the people who are bolstering Britain's religious communities. If there is one church in Britain whose congregations are a melting pot, it is the Roman Catholic church. Once dominated by Irish migrants, Catholic churches now have rainbow congregations – Poles, Ukrainians, Romanians, Spanish, Italians, Brazilians, Costa Ricans, Ghanains, Nigerians, and people from many Middle Eastern countries, including Iraqis and Palestinian Christians who have fled the troubles in their homelands. Plenty of them arrived recently and are the kind of people who keep London going through their employment as cleaners, taxi drivers, catering staff and shop assistants. In fact, they're just the kind of people who work at Heathrow. Cardinal Kasper, take note."
The reporter asked Cardinal Kasper why the Pope was opposed to the planned equality of treatment of homosexuals in Britain. "The question is whether we can accept partnerships of same-sex [couples], and regarding this issue, the Church has for centuries defended the understanding of marriage and family which equates to the order of God," he replied.
About the remark on equality in the UK for gays and lesbians (the Equality Bill), I have some past posts about this ... B16 and the Equality Bill and Something of a rant.
So what is the Pope setting out to achieve in the UK? "He wants to work on the difficult dialogue with the Anglican community. He will discuss possible fields of co-operation," said the cardinal. And when asked, will women priests ever be ordained in the Catholic Church? Cardinal Kasper's response was blunt: "The decision of John Paul II was so clear-cut that I don't expect that." And not even in 100 or 200 years? "I am not a prophet. But I don't think so," said Cardinal Kasper. He added: "Have a look at the Protestant churches: they don't have celibacy and they have women priests. But are they doing better? The Anglican Church has also taken on formidable problems with these new developments. I wouldn't wish those problems on my church."
And to think this guy was in charge of ecumenism for my church - yikes! I still remember him pushing the Church of England not to ordain women bishops in 2006. NT Wright shut him down. Here's a quote from Andrew Brown's piece in the Guardian, Cardinal Kasper reveals the Vatican's true beliefs ...
"This is not only stupefyingly tactless, and wrong (the Church of England has 600 priests in training, half of them women; the Roman Catholic church here has 39), it is also bizarre, in view of the pope's initiative last year to welcome married Anglican clergy, if they are opposed to women priests."
On the issue of the sex abuse scandals, Cardinal Kasper admits that the sex abuse scandal has severely "wounded" the Catholic Church but he claims that it is "unfair" that Pope Benedict has been the target of criticism in his native Germany.
I'm still thinking about the thirteen people who committed suicide in Belgium because of sex abuse by Catholic clergy, clergy who will not ever be held accountable, and who won't even apologize because they'd rather cover their assets. I'm truly disgusted at the assertion that the pope has been treated unfairly on the sunject of clergy sex abuse.
Speaking of apologies, I read that Kasper won't apologize for his UK remarks. I guess the arrogant assumption of your own untouchability means never having to say you're sorry.
