SANCTIFYING OFFICE

The Lord’s Real Presence in the Eucharist

In German-speaking countries, there has been a particularly intense discussion for several hundred years regarding the Real Presence of the Lord in the Eucharist. Cardinal Kurt Koch presents the traditional Catholic position that Jesus Christ is really and truly present in the Eucharist.

The Cardinal recently made this clear in a homily delivered on the occasion of Corpus Christi at the Campo Santo Teutonico in the Vatican. Citing the example of St. John Mary Vianney, he said: “Jean Vianney, the holy priest of Ars, is said to have repeatedly turned around and faced the tabernacle during his catecheses in church with the words: ‘Il est là’ — ‘He is there’. The Eucharistic mystery can hardly be expressed more succinctly or more profoundly. In this mystery, humanity’s dream of being able to be so closely connected with God that he is present among us has been fulfilled. The ‘Il est là’ is an eloquent testimony to the Christian faith in the presence of Jesus Christ in the celebration of the Eucharist and in the veneration of his abiding presence beyond the liturgical celebration. The certainty in faith that the Lord is present in the Eucharist forms the innermost center of the Eucharistic mystery”.

The cardinal stressed that, unlike in the view of many Protestants, the Lord’s Real Presence does not cease after the liturgical celebration is over. “This ‘Il est là’ contains the Catholic conviction of the lasting presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist beyond the conclusion of the liturgical celebration. The miracle of His Eucharistic Presence is so great that it does not simply end after the liturgical celebration,” he said.

He also pointed out the absolute centrality of the Eucharist to the life of the Catholic Church, telling those present:

“The sacramental presence of Jesus Christ is not only given to us for the sake of a liturgical celebration, but for the sake of the Church herself. In the Eucharist, Christ gives himself to is Church in that his presence takes on a concrete and sensible form in the Eucharistic gifts of bread and wine. Therefore, as long as the Church lives and believes, she is accompanied by Christ in the corporeality that his presence has assumed in the Eucharistic gifts. Even when the liturgy is completed, the Eucharist and thus the presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharistic gifts, lives on.”

Eucharistic Adoration

In the same homily, Cardinal Koch also called for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and rejected concepts that emerged after the Second Vatican Council, which contrasted the reception of Holy Communion with Eucharistic adoration. He said:

“If we allow this witness to affect us, there can in principle be no contradiction between the celebration of the Eucharist and adoration, or between Communion in the Eucharist and Eucharistic worship. Unfortunately, after the Second Vatican Council, such a contrast has been repeatedly asserted and justified with the superficial argument that bread is for eating and not for worshiping. However, St. Augustine already recognized that this is a false dichotomy with his profound statement that no one should eat ‘of this flesh’ ‘unless he has first worshiped’.”

The Cardinal also pointed out that the worship of God is the most important task of a Christian. In this context, he strongly defended the practice of kneeling as the most beautiful and wonderful form of worshipping the Savior. “If worship is the most important thing, then it must give us pause for thought that this term has become very unfashionable, if not foreign, in today’s world — and in some cases even in the Church.”

He continued:

“At first glance, this is even understandable. After all, worship means that we humans go down on our knees before God, in the literal sense. However, people today widely perceive kneeling down as degradation or even humiliation, as a kind of sabotage of their own ego. Instead, people today have learned to love walking upright and are afraid of losing their backbone. And quite rightly so, because in the world you have to ‘man up’ and ‘woman up’; in the world you are not allowed to bow down to anyone, and in the world, there is nothing and no one to worship. But the worship of God provides the opposite salutary experience: only those who have a strong backbone can stoop low because they gratefully feel that they owe their walking upright to the One to whom they bow down in worship. The believer only learns to walk upright in the world by kneeling before God. For he knows that when we marvel at the greatness of God, man is not made small, but indeed great. The worship of God therefore leads man to his true greatness, as Pope John XXIII used to say: ‘Man is never so great as when he kneels’.”

Vetus Ordo (Old Latin Mass)

Even before the promulgation of the motu proprio Traditionis custodes, Cardinal Koch had advocated the development of a single form of the Roman rite in the Church that would combine the Ordinary and Extraordinary forms. “In the future there will be a reconciliation of the two forms, so that at some point we will have only one form as a synthesis instead of two different ones,” he said in 2020. According to the cardinal, in the long run coexistence of the two forms is not possible due to the importance of the Eucharist in the Church. “The celebration of the Eucharist is the central celebration of the Church’s unity. It cannot have this meaning if there are disputes and arguments about it,” he stressed.

The cardinal also suggested that the post-conciliar liturgical reform did not fully correspond to the will of the Council Fathers. “One may ask whether the post-conciliar reform actually fulfilled all the demands of the Council Fathers. Or were some of the basic rulings of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy omitted, or indeed was it even decided to deliberately go further than the Council recommended?” he asked. He alluded to the profound sense of “reforming the reform,” which Pope Benedict XVI engendered when, in 2007, he promulgated the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum.

Amazon Rite

Cardinal Koch was critical of plans to create a new liturgical rite for the Amazon, under which married priests (so-called viri probati) would be allowed to hold ministries. According to the cardinal, the top-down creation of a liturgical rite is not appropriate. “I am convinced that rites are not created at a desk, but through organic growth,” he said. He argued that one should not look for a parallel for the Amazonian ritual in the liturgical diversity of Christianity in the East because of fundamental historical and cultural differences. “The Eastern churches brought these rites with them from the Orthodox churches, as it were, when they sought unity with Rome,” he stated. “Inculturation of the Gospel” ought to “go hand in hand with the equally necessary evangelization of culture,” he added, stressing that indigenous cultures also need to be cleansed.

GOVERNING OFFICE

As Bishop of Basel

The Diocese of Basel is an ancient diocese, dating back to the 4th century after Christ.

As a result of the Reformation, its inhabitants are religiously deeply divided. The diocese is home to nearly 3.5 million people, of whom Catholics are only 1 million. Like all dioceses in the German-speaking sphere, the Diocese of Basel is struggling with secularization, which manifests itself especially in the exodus of the faithful from the Church and the declining number of priestly and religious vocations.

As in other dioceses in Switzerland, Basel has specific rules for cooperation between the Church and secular authorities, which generates a variety of conflicts and tensions unknown elsewhere in the world. Koch was bishop of Basel from 1995 to 2010. The period of his ministry was generally characterized by great tranquility; the bishop devoted himself to his duties and work in the field of theology. However, it was not without problems related to clergy sex crimes.

Handling of clerical sexual abuse

In 2002, Koch made a mistake in procedure in dealing with an abusive priest, by not reporting the case to the prosecutor’s office or initiating a canonical investigation. As he explained years later, this was the result of the generally accepted modus operandi at the time. The Cardinal, in his own words, had no intention of covering up the crime. “Looking back today, I have to admit that this approach did not work satisfactorily and that it was a mistake not to have taken the planned measures. I regret this, especially with regard to the victims, if this approach gave them the impression that we had not taken them seriously”, he said, asking for forgiveness.

The case involved a Romanian priest incardinated in Basel who was alleged to have abused boys. In later years, Kurt Koch acted differently. In 2010, police in Thurgau arrested a 40-year-old priest from Aadorf who was accused of sexually abusing boys, including students in religious lessons. He was alleged to have massaged their feet, which was said to have erotic overtones. As bishop, Koch immediately suspended the priest, and he soon resigned from the ministry.

View on handling the abuse crisis

Kurt Koch argued in 2019 that the public’s interest in the clergy sex abuse scandal is “understandable,” as many cases are “truly shocking.” According to the Cardinal, it is fundamental in dealing with the abuse scandal to take the victims seriously, and to maintain a “zero-tolerance” policy toward perpetrators. Additionally, he believes it is essential to introduce effective countermeasures.

According to the Cardinal, it is inappropriate to equate sex crimes committed in the Church with those committed elsewhere. Clergy sex crimes, he argues, are twice as serious because of the connection between two extremely intimate areas — religiosity and sexuality. Sexual crimes committed in the name of God are particularly egregious: “And when the two are in conflict, at war with each other — and under the canopy of the holy — the abuse is particularly serious and must be fought from the ground up,” he said. The Cardinal acknowledged, however, that developing a unified policy to prevent and combat abuse is not simple in the Catholic Church because of the great cultural diversity and the different approaches and sensitivities of local communities to the same problem.

The case of Bishop Joseph Bonnemain

In 2021, Cardinal Kurt Koch consecrated Father Joseph Bonnemain of Opus Dei as bishop, taking over the diocese of Chur in Switzerland. Bonnemain replaced the conservative Bishop Vitus Huonder, who had been criticized by many in Switzerland for his alleged strictness and supposedly inciting divisions. Joseph Bonnemain was expected to bring about reconciliation in the diocese. Only a select group of people were invited to the solemn Mass (restrictions related to Covid-19 were in place). Among them were prominent local Protestants: the president of the Evangelical Reformed Church in Switzerland, Rita Famos; the president of the Zurich Church Council, Michel Müller; and an important Zurich official, Mario Fehr. All of these Protestants received Holy Communion from Bonnemain, which is against the Code of Canon Law. Cardinal Kurt Koch said he only learned what had happened a few days later, because he did not look at who was receiving Holy Communion during Mass. He did not comment on the doctrinal or canonical aspects of the case.

Managing the Intercommunion crisis in 2018

This does not mean, however, that Kurt Koch supported giving Holy Communion to Protestants. He opposed it very clearly during a dispute over the matter between the Vatican and the Church in Germany in 2018.

At the time, the German bishops had drafted a document allowing Protestants married to Catholics to receive Holy Communion if, in conscience, they chose to do so. After lengthy discussions with the Vatican, the document was published as an unofficial letter from the Permanent Council of the German Bishops’ Conference. In many dioceses, the document was, in practice, treated as binding. Cardinal Kurt Koch criticized this approach. “Pope Francis has decided that this document should not appear as a document of the Bishops’ Conference, but rather as a guide for the bishops. The difficulty, however, is that the text has remained the same and reads like a document from the Bishops’ Conference. You would have to ask them how this will be processed in Germany,” he said.

The Cardinal explained that it is not possible to build unity among Christians starting from intercommunion. “For Catholics, Eucharistic Communion presupposes Church communion, whereas Protestants tend to say that Communion is a path towards unity. Therefore, the relationship between Eucharistic Communion and church communion must be deepened,” he added. The cardinal was also highly critical of the theological basis developed in Germany to justify intercommunion.

Vatican sources said the entire episode was so stressful for the cardinal that it gave him a heart attack, from which he has now fully recovered.

In 2020, the theological group of Catholics and Protestants (Ökumenischer Arbeitskreis) published a document¹“Gemeinsam am Tisch des Herrn. Ein Votum des Ökumenischen Arbeitskreises evangelischer und katholischer Theologen” which proposed introducing in the Catholic Church in Germany permission to give Holy Communion to Protestants and to grant Catholics permission to participate fully in the Protestant Supper. The document received a favorable assessment from most German bishops.

Cardinal Koch evaluated it negatively. In February 2021, he published a long letter systematically refuting the arguments laid out in “Geimensam…”, especially that there was a “consensus” between Catholics and Protestants regarding the Eucharist. The Cardinal also strongly defended the letter of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to the Germans, rejecting the proposals of “Gemeinsam… .” As noted above, the cardinal shares the Catholic position on the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist, which cannot be said of Protestant communities in Germany.

Fiducia Supplicans crisis of 2023-2024

Cardinal Koch generally sought to avoid entering into the controversy over the Declaration Fiducia supplicans which gave permission for non-liturgical blessings of same-sex couples, but his misgivings were clear, especially given the strong opposition to the document from the Orthodox.

Koch stressed that he had spoken with Budapest’s Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion, who “expressed deep amazement after reading the text.” He also indicated that he had asked Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, for additional clarification on the document, for the purpose of dialogue with the Orthodox Church.

In an interview, he said he had received “some negative reactions from the ecumenical world” and said he thought it was important to “think again” about the issue in the context of ecumenical dialogue.”

“What is a blessing, and what is the relationship between doctrine and pastoral care? These questions have now become acute again, and we need to talk about them,” he said. For this reason, he added, he did not think discussion of Eucharistic hospitality (sharing the Eucharist with non-Catholic Christians) was “appropriate now.”

However, when the Coptic Orthodox Church suspended dialogue with the Vatican over the issue, Koch refused to comment on such a drastic ecumenical development, despite repeated opportunities by the media for him to do so. Cardinal Fernández travelled to Cairo in May 2024 to mend fences, but as of writing, dialogue remains suspended.

TEACHING OFFICE

Women priests

Prior to St. John Paul II’s 1994 promulgation the apostolic letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis, which definitively ended the possibility of women priests in the Catholic Church, Cardinal Koch — while still a priest—not bishop or cardinal—considered women’s ordination not only theologically possible, but even “desirable”, for only then, he believed, “would the ecclesiastical office reach the full form of the sacramental sign of the universal priesthood.”²Kurt Koch, “Schizophrenie von Amt und Charisma,”, p. 54. Quoted from: Urs Corradini, “Pastorale Dienste im Bistum Basel. Entwicklung und theologische Konzeption nach dem Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil,” 2008 Academic Press Fribourg, p. 85

Following St. John Paul II’s ruling, Koch said the discussion on women being ordained to the priesthood was closed and could only be revived by a new Council.³ Kurt Koch, “Zum Dienst in der Kirche geweiht. Homilie bei der Weihe Ständiger Diakone in der Kathedrale St. Urs und Viktor in Solothurn am 20. Oktober 2002 (unveröffentlichtes Manuskript)”, p. 1. Quoted from: ibid.

This is a popular view among some German-speaking prelates. Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn has also spokensimilarly regarding the possibility of women priests. Koch has focused on the issue within the broader context of ecumenical dialogue, stating that it is a “particularly difficult problem.” While the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, arguing from Scripture and Tradition, insist on an exclusively male priesthood, the evangelical communities think otherwise, accusing the former of a deficit in understanding of the nature of the Church.

The Swiss cardinal believes that women who claim to have a vocation to the priesthood should consider the distinction between a vocation to sacramental ministry and God’s call to various roles in the Church, as God calls “everyone in the Church to live the charism proper to them.” He pointed out that the Catholic Church is convinced that “the sacramental priesthood is linked to the male sex.”

Viri probati

In the past, Koch favored ordaining married men as priests, in line with the viri probati model. He did not propose abolishing celibacy but wanted to support celibacy, while also allowing married priests to be admitted to the priesthood. “Should priority be given to — in itself legitimate and legal, but after all justified only ecclesiastically — the concern for the continued existence of the celibate priesthood, or — in accordance with God’s law — the concern for a sufficient number of ordained pastors,” he asked in 1999.⁴Kurt Koch, “Liturgischer Leitungsdienst in pastoralen Notsituationen. Eine ekklesiologische Problemanzeige,” Freiburg i. Br., 1999, p. 249. Quoted from: Corradini…, p. 84. He added: “The price for maintaining the existing pathways to the priesthood is very high.”⁵ Ibid., p. 252. Quoted from: Corradini…, p. 84.

In recent years, however, the Cardinal has changed his position. Asked by the Swiss press in 2018 about the abolition of celibacy, Koch argued that it was not a key issue in the vocations crisis. When asked if the vocations crisis is an argument for abolishing mandatory celibacy, he replied: “No. The decisive issue is the question of faith. It has a lot to do with demographics. When the past, in a family with six children, one of the sons became a priest, it was not a disaster. It looks different in a family with statistically 1.4 children. The problem of the vocation crisis is much more complex than just the issue of celibacy,” he said.

Changing views on women’s priesthood and celibacy

The change Cardinal Koch’s views on issues such as women priests and celibacy is striking, and may be related to the increasing responsibility he was given by the Holy See — first by the episcopal office, then by his appointment as prefect of a Vatican dicastery, and finally through his elevation to the cardinalate. This change was explained by Dietrich Wiederkehr, who knew Kurt Koch as a young theologian and was the promoter of his doctorate.

According to Wiederkehr, Kurt Koch in his early years “held the Swiss bishops in awe when it came to modern views.” Later, however, he wanted to “please the Pope” and considered Rome’s position absolutely decisive. That is why he decided not to write about such matters in such a way again. Wiederkehr, who identified progressive theology, did not hide his disappointment with Koch’s changing attitude.

Tasks of the bishop

Cardinal Koch has countered the prevailing view in German-speaking countries that bishops should be a keystone for the various views present in his diocese or the country more generally, stressing that a bishop’s primary task is to be an authentic preacher of the Gospel. Preaching at the episcopal ordination of Joseph Bonnemain in 2021, he said: “[…] Despite all the necessary bridge-building, the bishop cannot simply be satisfied with being a moderator between different currents and opinions. Rather, he is first and foremost called to act as an evangelist and to be at the service of proclaiming the Gospel. The first questions that are asked and must be asked of the ordination candidate before ordination also regard this,” the cardinal said, stressing a bishop’s duty to proclaim the true faith of the Church. “The bishop is thus called first and foremost to be a witness, to stand up for the faith of the Church as it is given in the Gospel of Jesus Christ with his whole person and with his inalienable conscience, and to bear witness to it, whether opportune or not, and not just occasionally. This has been the case since the earliest beginnings of the Church.”

Christian Unity

To enumerate the whole of Cardinal Koch’s ecumenical activities and views is an impossible task given the fact that he has been involved in the subject for over 40 years — first as a theologian, then as a bishop and curial cardinal, particularly in his role as Prefect of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Unity.

However, the Cardinal can be said to have embraced the authentic teachings of the Second Vatican Council and of Popes St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI on ecumenism, encouraging and intensely promoting dialogue, while at the same time rejecting the view that visible unity can ignore unity in doctrine and morals.

“Unity can only be found in faith, and therefore we must find unity not only among the churches of today, but also with the Church of the past and above all with its apostolic origin,” he has said.

The cardinal has stressed that the first goal of ecumenism must be to become one in faith. In an April 2024 interview with Communio, he said: “As far as the goal of ecumenism is concerned, the Catholic Church assumes that unity must be sought above all in faith. The foundation of ecumenism is the Apostles’ Creed, which is given and entrusted to every new member of the body of Christ at baptism. As this faith is celebrated, unity is also sought in the sacraments. And to make this possible, unity in the ministries is also needed.”

The cardinal also maintains that, today, ecumenical dialogue must increasingly address the moral issues that divide Christians. “In earlier decades,” he told Communio, “the leitmotif in ecumenism was: faith divides, action unites. Today, however, we must conclude the opposite: we have come closer together on many issues of faith; the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification between the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church in 1999 comes to mind in particular. However, new differences and tensions have arisen in the meantime, especially in the ethical sphere. The ecumenical dialogues must deal with this more intensively. For if the Christian churches cannot speak with one voice on the fundamental questions of human life and social coexistence, the Christian voice will become ever weaker in Europe’s secularized societies; and this certainly does not serve ecumenism.

Anglican Services in Roman Basilicas

In 2023 and 2024, two surprising and controversial events took place in Rome. In April 2023, Anglican clergy held a service in the Basilica of St John Lateran. Then, in January 2024, another Anglican service was held at the ninth-century Basilica of St Bartholomew on the Tiber Island, presided over by the Anglican Primate himself, Justin Welby — the first time that has happened since the Reformation.

One would have expected Cardinal Kurt Koch to speak out about these events, but as so often happens when controversy knocks at his door, he chose to remain silent.

The Reformation as sin

As prefect of the Pontifical Council for Unity, Cardinal Koch was closely involved in the events surrounding the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017, as well as Pope Francis’ Reformation-anniversary visit to Lund, Sweden, on October 31, 2016.

However, unlike many Catholic German bishops and elements in German Protestant circles, the Cardinal did not view the celebrations as a joyous event, pointing to the disaster brought to the Catholic Church by Martin Luther’s Ninety-five Theses in 1517. According to Kurt Koch, the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of Luther’s revolt should be essentially penitential, culminating in a confession of guilt on both the Catholic and Protestant sides. “We cannot celebrate sin,” he said in Vienna, as a clear counterpoint to German Lutheran theologian, Margot Käßmann, who was chosen to serve as the “Reformation ambassador” for the anniversary.

Papal Authority and Ecumenism

On June 13, 2024, the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, led by Cardinal Koch, released a new study documenttitled, “The Bishop of Rome: Primacy and synodality in ecumenical dialogues and responses to the encyclical Ut unum sint.”

Synthesizing more than 30 years of ecumenical dialogue on the papacy, the document also included some of the Dicastery’s own proposals for transforming the way papal primacy is understood and exercised.

Speaking to Vatican media, Koch argued that papal primacy must be understood today in a synodal way. “Primacy must be exercised in a synodal manner, and synodality requires primacy,” he said.

The cardinal also suggested that the teachings of the First Vatican Council are largely historical in nature. “Some dialogues,” he said, “have endeavored to interpret the First Vatican Council in the light of its historical context, objective, and reception. Since its dogmatic definitions were profoundly conditioned by historical circumstances, they suggest that the Catholic Church seek new expressions and vocabulary faithful to the original intention, integrating them into an ecclesiology of communion and adapting them to the current cultural and ecumenical context. There is therefore talk of a ‘re-reception,’ or even ‘reformulation,’ of the teachings of Vatican I.”

Although Koch referred essentially to views expressed in the ecumenical dialogue, the proposal of “re-reception” or “reformulation” of teachings of Vatican Council I appeared in the document as one of the Dicastery’s own proposals. The Dicastery’s text stresses that this is an issue “of a particular importance.”

The dicastery also highlighted the “new image of the papacy” as “historic” after Pope Francis’ decision to dismiss some papal titles. (These titles were: Vicar of Jesus Christ. Successor of the Prince of the Apostles. Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church. Primate of Italy. Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Province of Rome. Sovereign of Vatican City State. Servant of the Servants of God). The Dicastery’s own proposals also largely addressed the synodal nature of the understanding and exercise of papal primacy.⁶ “The Bishop of Rome…,” p. 125 – 130.

Relations with Judaism

As prefect of the Pontifical Council for Unity, the cardinal has engaged in dialogue not only with the Christian world, but also with the Jews, as his dicastery has responsibility for the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.

In 2013, Koch stressed that the Catholic Church does not have an organized mission to the Jews, but added that this does not mean that there are two paths to salvation. “For Christians, of course, there is only one way to salvation, which God has revealed to us in Jesus Christ,” he told Vatican News. “However, we Christians don’t have to bear witness to the Jews about a way that would be completely foreign to them, as is the case with followers of other religions. This is because the New Testament is built entirely on the basis of the Old Testament. The Catholic Church, therefore, does not carry out an organized mission to the Jews, as some Protestant evangelical groups do. On the other hand, we, as Christians, also bear witness to the Jews to the hope that faith in Christ gives us.”

Koch firmly adheres to what he calls the “clear vision” of the Second Vatican Council Declaration “Nostra Aetate” which considered the Jews to be “our elder brothers” and “inseparable.” The only group that does not accept this, he said in January 2013, “are the Lefebvrians” because they “do not accept ecumenical dialogue, relations with Jews or religious freedom.” But these, he added, “are central to the Holy Father’s [Benedict XVI’s] teaching and if a group does not accept the Council and does not accept a magisterium, they need to ask themselves how they see themselves as Catholic. This is the fundamental problem.”

In 2015, the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews which Koch chairs released a document “The Gifts and Calling of God are irrevocable” which reiterated that the Church does not have an organized mission to the Jews, and that Christians should limit themselves to bearing witness to the Jews to their faith in Christ. “The Church is therefore obliged to view evangelization to Jews, who believe in the one God, in a different manner from that to people of other religions and world views. In concrete terms this means that the Catholic Church neither conducts nor supports any specific institutional mission work directed towards Jews. While there is a principled rejection of an institutional Jewish mission, Christians are nonetheless called to bear witness to their faith in Jesus Christ also to Jews, although they should do so in a humble and sensitive manner, acknowledging that Jews are bearers of God’s Word, and particularly in view of the great tragedy of the Shoah,”  the document states.

The same text states that there is only one way to salvation for all people. “Since God has never revoked his covenant with his people Israel, there cannot be different paths or approaches to God’s salvation. The theory that there may be two different paths to salvation, the Jewish path without Christ and the path with the Christ, whom Christians believe is Jesus of Nazareth, would in fact endanger the foundations of Christian faith. Confessing the universal and therefore also exclusive mediation of salvation through Jesus Christ belongs to the core of Christian faith. So too does the confession of the one God, the God of Israel, who through his revelation in Jesus Christ has become totally manifest as the God of all peoples, insofar as in him the promise has been fulfilled that all peoples will pray to the God of Israel as the one God (cf. Is 56:1-8)”. On the other hand, the same document states that it is “theologically unquestionable” that “the Jews are participants in God’s salvation”, and the fact that it is “possible without confessing Christ explicitly, is and remains an unfathomable divine mystery”.

Critics say the document sharply departs from the Church’s pre-conciliar approach to the Jews, when Popes and Church leaders frequently made clear statements encouraging their conversion to the faith.

In 2021, Koch said in a message to Jewish leaders that the “abiding Christian conviction is that Jesus Christ is the new way of salvation,” but added: “However, this does not mean that the Torah is diminished or no longer recognized as the ‘way of salvation for Jews.’”

In a 2023 lecture in Germany, Cardinal Koch acknowledged and lamented the Church’s complicit role in the anti-semitism of the 20th century. He also further explained why there is currently no mission to the Jews. Quoting Benedict XVI, he said that the missionary mandate is to make the unknown God known to people. It is therefore universal “with one exception,” he said: “A mission to the Jews was not planned and was not necessary simply because they were the only people who knew the ‘unknown God.’ To Israel, therefore, there was not and still is not a mission, but rather the dialogue about whether Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, the Logos, who is expected by Israel—according to the promises made to his own people—and, unknowingly, by all of humanity.”

On Converting Muslims

Cardinal Koch’s attitude toward Muslims has been different than toward the Jews. While shying away from encouragement to carry out a strong mission to followers of Islam, he does recognize a mission to Islam, but one that gently wins them to faith in Christ “in a dialogical way.” In a 2016 interview with Armin Schwibach for Kathnet, he explained that,

“For the Catholic Church it is self-evident that she has a commission to evangelize all people and therefore witnesses to her faith. The question is the manner in which she carries out this commission to evangelize. […] In German this can be expressed also with this distinction: The Church wants to convince [überzeugen] people, but not talk people into [überreden] accepting the faith. For talking someone into believing is a method that does not respect the other person’s freedom, whereas convincing occurs within the space of a human being’s freedom. This desire to convince, naturally, is necessary in the conversation with Islam too. The Church has the commission to evangelize, which she carries out, however, in a dialogical way by entering ‘into a conversation’ with the Muslims too.”

He has also argued that Muslims should be helped to live their faith in Europe, and sees clashes in Europe with Muslim immigrants as primarily the problem of a Christianity that has grown “cold” on the continent, conflicting with the “hot” religion of Islam. Echoing Benedict XVI’s famous Regensburg lecture, Koch said: “Christianity in Europe can withstand the encounter with Islam only if it rediscovers the flowing stream of warmth within itself and does not hide the Christian roots of Europe out of false modesty, but rather stands by them. In this respect the problem today is not so much the strength of Islam as the weakness of Christianity in Europe.”

Modern Heresies: The Return of Arianism

The cardinal has also weighed in on current disputes, particularly those regarding the activities of the Catholic Church in Germany. In this context, he said, the heresy of Arianism is making a comeback today. In a May 2024 interview with Die Tagespost, he said: “the Arian heresy, which […] has been widespread and says that Jesus could not be the Son of God, but merely a middle being between God and man, does not simply belong to the past, but is also widespread today. If I am not mistaken when I look back in history, the Alemanni seem to be particularly susceptible to it.”

The Cardinal also highlighted the logical continuity of views that are anti-Church and hostile to Christ as God, stressing that the rejection of the Church can further lead to the rejection of the Divinity of Jesus Christ. He told Die Tagespost: “I am thinking above all of German-speaking countries, where this challenge still exists today. It is probably no coincidence that Pope Benedict XVI has repeatedly emphasized that in today’s situation, behind the much-used statement “Jesus, yes — Church, no” there is an even deeper statement: “Jesus, yes — Son of God, no.” Even today, many Christians allow themselves to be touched by all the human dimensions of Jesus of Nazareth, while the Christian belief in Jesus Christ, true God and true man, and thus the ecclesiastical belief in Christ, is more difficult for them.”

German Synodal Way

Cardinal Koch has been a staunch critic of the German Synodal Way, even drawing parallels between the it and the Nazi era.  Speaking to Die Tagespot in 2022, he said the concept of “new sources of revelation” promoted by the German Synodal Way is similar to ideas promoted by Evangelical Christians collaborating with Adolf Hitler’s regime in the Third Reich.

“It irritates me that new sources are being accepted alongside the sources of revelation in Scripture and Tradition; and it frightens me that this is happening — again — in Germany. For this phenomenon already occurred during the National Socialist dictatorship, when the so-called ‘Deutsche Christen’ saw God’s new revelation in blood and soil and in the rise of Hitler,” he said.

The Cardinal stressed the Catholic Church must take into account the signs of the times, but not to the point of considering them as new sources of revelation itself. “But they [the signs of the times] are not new sources of revelation. In the three steps of believing knowledge — seeing, judging and acting — the signs of the times belong to seeing and by no means to judging alongside the sources of revelation. I miss this necessary distinction in the ‘Orientation text’ of the Synodal Way,” he said.

Following backlash from the president of the German Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing, and numerous other representatives of German Catholicism, Koch apologized to those who felt hurt, but stressed that he would not be backing down from his critical assessment of the Synodal Way. “I apologize to those who feel hurt by me and assure them that this was not and is not my intention. However, I cannot retract my critique,” he said.

Synod on Synodality

As a curial cardinal, Koch is taking part in the Synod on Synodality. He has not spoken much about it publicly, but after the synod’s October 2023 session, he gave a positive assessment and expressed his hope for good results from the entire process. In comments to Swiss media, he said, “The four weeks were only the first part. The second will follow next year. I found the atmosphere in which the synod took place to be very positive. The questions, difficulties and challenges facing the church today were discussed openly. Controversially, but nevertheless in a way of listening to each other and wanting to understand. It was good that we didn’t immediately set pros and cons against each other, but that we tried to listen to each other intensively in a true spirit of synodality.”

It should be noted here that these statements were made before the publication of the Fiducia supplicans on December 18, 2023 — a highly controversial issue that had not been agreed upon by the synod.

According to Koch, there was no danger, as Cardinal Joseph Zen-Ze Kiun and others have suggested, that the Synod on Synodality would lose its episcopal character due to the inclusion of lay participation in the process. Instead he emphasized the importance of lay participation in the Synod on Synodality, highlighting its ecumenical dimension.

Communion for Divorced and Civilly Remarried Catholics

Kurt Koch has not been directly involved in public disputes about Holy Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics and has been somewhat ambivalent on the subject. Prior to the publication of Amoris Laetitia, he said, “There are still open theological questions here than need to be deepened”, adding that the problem is very complex and far from producing any concrete solution.

The Cardinal pointed specifically to the question of the relationship between the canonical validity of a marriage and the conviction of the faithful, in whose judgment the marriage may not have been valid. And he stressed (also prior to the publication of Amoris Laetitia) that the decision must be made personally by the Pope.

The possibility of criticizing the pope

Amid the disputes on celibacy surrounding the Amazon Synod, Cardinal Koch spoke about the possibility of opposing or admonishing the Pope. He pointed out several necessary conditions for doing so and stressed the need to scrupulously determine what the Pope really said.

Speaking to Kath.net in 2019, he said: “First of all, I advise you to very carefully find out in each instance what Pope Francis actually said. Some media outlets have a habit of publicizing only what suits their line, and this often leads to a distortion of the meaning of what the Pope meant to say. Before taking a position, one should look at the Pope’s original text on the Vatican website.”

The Cardinal added that, as a rule, a Catholic should interpret papal statements in a positive light. “A Catholic Christian is obliged, by definition, to listen positively to what the Pope says. We always run the risk of treating a person through the prism of superstition. In the case of the Pope, we must have a positive and not a negative attitude,” he added.

The cardinal also noted that one must also distinguish between the authority and theological weight of Francis’ statements, saying, “There is a fundamental difference between what the Pope says in an airplane interview and what he teaches ex officio.”

He acknowledged, however, that there can be “a difficult situation in which someone becomes convinced that what the Pope teaches does not correspond to the faith of the Church.”

Koch continued: “Also the teaching office of the Pope — and this is in line with fidelity to the Pope — is not a purely formal rule, but is first and foremost an expression of an internal bond: even the Pope does not have authority over the Apostolic creed; rather, all his authority comes precisely from this creed. The Pope’s teaching office is also subject to the Word of God and its obligatory interpretation in Tradition.”

The Cardinal did not, therefore, rule out the possibility of openly voicing doubts about the Pope’s positions. “If someone were to state in his conscience that this is not the case, however, he would be obliged to communicate this to the community of the faithful,” he said.

Koch also stressed that while one cannot “separate” the Pope from his office, one has to make a “distinction”, because each pontificate is strongly characterized by the personality of a particular successor of Peter. “Even if one had a difficulty with the personality of the current pope, it should be noted that this does not affect the significance of the office itself. For the office is always broader than the one who holds it at any given time,” he stressed.

On papal abdication

Cardinal Koch has involved himself in the discussion of Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation and has taken a generally positive view of it. “After Pope Benedict XVI’s official abdication, there were many critical voices claiming that this move had secularized the Petrine Office. I am quite convinced that it is actually the opposite. I view his abdication from office as both a courageous and, in particular, a humble act,” he said.

According to Koch, Benedict XVI’s resignation should be linked precisely to a humble understanding of the papal ministry. “Admittedly, it can only be comprehended if one really understands who he was and how he understood the ministerial office within the Church. As a theologian, a bishop, a cardinal, and as Pope, Joseph Ratzinger never put himself in the spotlight, but always placed himself entirely in the service of whatever task was entrusted to him at the time. This characteristic trait of his is a fundamental reason why he wanted to and was able to place the Petrine Office into other hands when he became convinced that he was personally no longer capable of faithfully exercising it,” he underlined.

“Pope Benedict XVI thus put into concrete terms what the scholar David Knowles wrote in the Encyclopedia Britannica about the papacy, that it was the ‘only institution that has continued without interruption since the early days of the Roman empire’ and that ‘the office has always been greater than the personality, and it persists.’ The courageous and, at the same time, humble retreat of the person from the office did not harm the office, but highlighted once more how beautifully necessary it is,” the cardinal added.

The pontificate of Benedict XVI

For the Cardinal, it is realistic to believe that Benedict XVI might one day be declared a Doctor of the Church. “The decision to declare a theologian a Doctor of the Church lies ultimately with the Pope; and it is not for me to anticipate whether a future Pope will make such a judgment. But this is something that I, along with many other people, would love and hope to see happen,” he stated.

Highlighting his theological achievements and attitude as a man of faith, he said: “Joseph Ratzinger was not only an outstanding theologian and scholar, but someone who constantly placed himself in the service of proclaiming the Catholic faith. And in doing so,” Koch added, “he always saw the faith as the ultimate measure and criterion of theology and preaching, and not the other way around. Convinced as he was that what is true is simple, and that only that which is simple is true, he always defended and protected the faith of the so-called ‘simple believers.’”

Koch also appreciated Benedict XVI for his fidelity to the Church’s teaching and his willingness to give up presenting his own views at the expense of the traditional Magisterium. “Since the faith that is reflected in theology is lived within the faith community of the Church, and is therefore the faith of the Church, one of the ways in which he always distinguished himself was by his desire to believe and to think along with the faith of the Church. In this sense, he did not strive to develop his own ‘original’ theology; rather, he always oriented his theological thinking towards the true origin of the faith; namely, God’s revelation in the history of salvation, above all in Jesus Christ, and the transmission of that revelation in the living tradition of the Church,” he said.

Postcoital Contraception

Cardinal Koch does not often speak out on strictly moral issues. As bishop of Basel, however, he took a position critical of postcoital contraception, which was popularized in Switzerland during his episcocy. “It promotes the tendency in today’s society to view abortion as a form of contraception,” he said.⁷Beobachter Zeitschrift

Abortion and Euthanasia

The cardinal has also openly criticized the legalization of abortion and euthanasia, linking them to the loss of faith in God. Alluding to Nietzsche’s philosophy, he has tied the loss of faith in God to the collapse of an understanding of human dignity. In an extensive interview with Swiss media in January 2024, he said: “Wherever man does not believe in the transcendence of God, he is tempted to declare worldly, finite things to be of the highest value — ideology. The death of God ultimately results in the death of man.”

“The fact that we have major problems at the beginning and end of life today is also due to the loss of faith” [Dass wir heute die großen Probleme am Anfang und am Ende des Lebens haben, hängt auch mit dem Verlust des Glaubens zusammen], he said.

According to the cardinal, the culture of death is closely linked to utilitarianism and the perception of man solely in temporal terms. In his opinion, therefore, it is no coincidence, “that two problems have come together in today’s achievement-oriented society. There is the question of abortion and the question of euthanasia. If achievement becomes the highest value, then human life that cannot yet achieve anything, the unborn, infant life, and human life that can no longer achieve anything, the old, sick, dying, no longer have a high market value,” he insisted.

Christianity in Europe

As a European cardinal, Koch has also commented on the state of Christianity on the continent, saying the situation is “critical”. This includes sexual abuse, as well as other, even deeper problems. However, according to the Cardinal, the greatest threat to the Church is not any external phenomena, but the internal state of the Church, specifically the fact that the Church “is no longer sufficiently convinced of its Christian message and no longer able to pass on this message.”

War in Ukraine

Even before the outbreak of war in Ukraine, the Swiss cardinal was an outspoken critic of war. “War is always the capitulation of diplomacy, the capitulation of peace efforts, and if all Christians are aware that war is not an option, then an important step has been taken,” he said in January 2022.

Even after the war began, he came to the defense of Pope Francis, who was widely criticized in Western media for his statements regarding the perceived need for a truce. According to Koch, if one considers all of Francis’ statements on the war, one sees that the Pope speaks consistently with concern for the oppressed population of Ukraine.

According to the Cardinal, the Pope is not pro-Russian: “You certainly cannot say that he is taking Russia’s side; rather, he is taking sides with the victims,” Koch said. He also regards the Pope’s position as a diplomatic desire to mediate between the warring parties. “[…] If you want to mediate, you have to leave doors open, even if this can be misinterpreted,” he said.

• 1
  “Gemeinsam am Tisch des Herrn. Ein Votum des Ökumenischen Arbeitskreises evangelischer und katholischer Theologen”
• 2
  Kurt Koch, “Schizophrenie von Amt und Charisma,”, p. 54. Quoted from: Urs Corradini, “Pastorale Dienste im Bistum Basel. Entwicklung und theologische Konzeption nach dem Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil,” 2008 Academic Press Fribourg, p. 85
• 3
  Kurt Koch, “Zum Dienst in der Kirche geweiht. Homilie bei der Weihe Ständiger Diakone in der Kathedrale St. Urs und Viktor in Solothurn am 20. Oktober 2002 (unveröffentlichtes Manuskript)”, p. 1. Quoted from: ibid.
• 4
  Kurt Koch, “Liturgischer Leitungsdienst in pastoralen Notsituationen. Eine ekklesiologische Problemanzeige,” Freiburg i. Br., 1999, p. 249. Quoted from: Corradini…, p. 84.
• 5
  Ibid., p. 252. Quoted from: Corradini…, p. 84.
• 6
  “The Bishop of Rome…,” p. 125 – 130.
• 7
  Beobachter Zeitschrift