Cardinal Kurt Koch, the President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, reminded that the Week Prayer for Christian Unity is an opportunity for Christians to work together to achieve peace, especially to re-fined peace between Christians in Ukraine.
The cardinal explained how the Ukraine war has created a “very difficult situation” for ecumenical dialogue because there are “many tensions and divisions in the Orthodox world.” He was appearing in an interview with EWTN News on 18 January.
“I think we have, with this war in Ukraine, a very difficult situation, because Christians kill Christians, and above all Orthodox kill Orthodox. And this is a very bad and sad message for the world because the Christians have the duty and the responsibility to be engaged for peace,” Koch said.
“Religion cannot be part of the problem of war but must be part of reconciliation and peace.” Cardinal Koch said the Catholic Church is working to “re-find unity” amid the tensions and divisions in the Orthodox world through dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox.
“And now we have many, many tensions and divisions in the Orthodox world, and this is a difficulty. For instance, we have an international and mixed commission between the Catholic Church and all the Orthodox churches, but the Russian Orthodox Church doesn’t participate in this dialogue,” he said.
Koch explained that the Russian Orthodox Church pulled out of commission after the Orthodox Church of Ukraine declared its autocephaly, or hierarchical independence, in 2019.
“And when the Russian Orthodox Church doesn’t participate in this dialogue, this is a challenge,” he added.
The 56th Week of Prayer for Christian Unity began on 18 January and will continue with daily ecumenical prayers until the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul on 25 January, when Pope Francis will preside over an ecumenical prayer service in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.