The limits to ecumenism on moral issues

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Weakened influence

In the dialogue between the Church and Protestants, problems not only arise in religious teaching, but more and more also in the field of moral theology.

Father Karl Jüsten (46) has criticised Bishop Wolfgang Huber, chairman of the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany.

The priest spoke about the demand of the Council chairman for a changed deadline for a new regime for stem cell experiments in Germany.

The opinion of the priest appears today in the daily newspapers of Cologne and Stuttgart.

Jüsten was ordained priest in 1987 for the Archdiocese of Cologne and for seven years has been head of the 'Catholic Agencies' in Berlin.

This Catholic office is the liaison body of the Church with the German Federal Government, the German Parliament and the political parties.

According to Father Jüsten, Huber's recent utterances against embryo protection diminish the influence of the churches and damage ecumenism:

"For the Protestant-Catholic dialogue, the conflict is certainly a burden."

The priest said : "So far we have stood solid together with Bishop Huber. If we, as Christians, in such important ethical questions, are no longer of a single mind, the whole influence of Christians is weakened in this matter. "

Expressly Fr Jüsten attacked the statement of Huber on the grounds that such a disagreement bears the traits of a cultural struggle.

The attitude of the church is clear: "We must uncompromisingly protect and advocate life."

This is not a confessional issue. The confessional dialectic suggested by Bishop Huber, he could "not recognise".

Many Protestant Christians shared the Catholic belief:

"If the question is whether a politician is bound to the positions of the Magisterium, this may be answered differently according to confessional allegiance."

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