He was elevated to the
cardinalate by
Pope John Paul II in the
consistory of 21 February 2001, as
Cardinal-Deacon of
Ognissanti in Via Appia Nuova. Kasper was one of a dozen or more like-minded cardinals and bishops who
met annually from 1995 to 2006 in
St. Gallen, Switzerland, to discuss reforms with respect to the appointment of bishops, collegiality, bishops' conferences, and the primacy of the papacy as well as the Church's approach to sexual morality. They differed among themselves in varying degrees, but shared the view that Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger was not the candidate they hoped to see elected at the next conclave. Upon the death of John Paul II on 2 April 2005, Kasper and all major Vatican officials automatically lost their positions pending the election of a new pope. He was a
cardinal elector in the
2005 papal conclave. On the following 21 April,
Pope Benedict XVI confirmed him as President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. On 21 February 2011 he was promoted to Cardinal-Priest, having made the option for such. Therefore, the church of
Ognissanti became a
pro hac vice title, but will again be a cardinal diaconate for his future successor there. Kasper was the oldest cardinal eligible to vote in the
Papal conclave of 2013, having been 79 when the Papacy became vacant. His 80th birthday was on 5 March 2013, five days after the resignation of
Pope Benedict XVI, on 28 February 2013. His eligibility to serve as an elector ended when that conclave concluded.
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity On 3 March 1999, Kasper was appointed Secretary of the
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity – and as such, President of the
Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews – and resigned from his post in Rottenburg-Stuttgart.
Reconciliation with Jews Kasper recognized that the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith document
Dominus Iesus (2000) was offensive to many
Jewish people and was thus somewhat critical of its presentation. However, he affirmed the validity of its content, and called it "not the end of dialogue but a challenge for a further and even more intensive dialogue" between Catholics and Jews. In 2003, he wrote a text called
Anti-semitism: A wound to be healed for the European Day of Jewish Culture. On 10 July 2004, at the Latin-American Rabbinical Seminary of Buenos Aires,
the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation and the Angelo Roncalli Committee presented Kasper the "Memorial Mural Award" for his lifetime dedication to the causes of understanding and reconciliation between Jews and Catholics.
International Theological Commission Kasper was a member of the
International Theological Commission, an advisory body to the
Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. On several occasions, in his capacity of President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, he led the annual official delegation of the Holy See to the
Ecumenical Patriarchate in
Constantinople for the Feast of St Andrew the Apostle. In August 2007, he led the Catholic delegation to the funeral of Patriarch
Teoctist of the
Romanian Orthodox Church.
Society of Saint Pius X In January 2009, Kasper told
The New York Times that he had little, if any, input on whether to lift the excommunication of four bishops of the
Society of Saint Pius X. Kasper was distancing himself from the scandal that ensued when it transpired that one of the bishops,
Richard Williamson, was found to have claimed that reports about
The Holocaust were exaggerated and that no Jews died in Nazi gas chambers. As the Vatican official responsible for relations with the Jewish religion, Kasper felt it necessary to comment on the action and the process leading up to the lifting of the excommunications. He said that: "Up to now people in the
Vatican have spoken too little with each other and have not checked where problems might arise." He said that in lifting the excommunications "there were misunderstandings and management errors in the Curia."
Comments on Britain In September 2010, Kasper withdrew from the papal visit to
Great Britain, after reportedly saying that
Heathrow Airport gives the impression of a Third World country and that the United Kingdom is marked by "a new and aggressive atheism". In an interview with a German magazine, he was quoted as saying: "When you land at Heathrow you think at times you have landed in a Third World country". Kasper's secretary explained it as "a description of the many different people that live in Britain at the moment". He said that when one wears a cross on the
British Airways "you are discriminated against", a reference to the
British Airways cross controversy. British Airways said that Kasper had been "seriously misinformed" in his claims about the airline, and that "It is completely untrue that we discriminate against Christians or members of any faith". He said that the ordination of women as bishops would "call into question what was recognized by the
Second Vatican Council (
Unitatis Redintegratio, 13), that the Anglican Communion occupied 'a special place' among churches and ecclesial communities of the West." He warned that the "restoration of full Church communion ... would realistically no longer exist following the introduction of the ordination of women to episcopal office." He spoke at the 2008
Lambeth Conference, criticizing sharply the departures from Christian orthodoxy taken on women clergy and episcopate and even more by some member churches of the
Anglican Communion on allowing the blessing of same-sex unions and non-celibate homosexual clergy. He called at the occasion for a new
Oxford Movement to rise among Anglicanism.
Pope Francis Pope Francis, on 17 March 2013, four days after his election as Pope, called Kasper "a clever theologian, a good theologian", in the course of a sermon in which he reported that Kasper's book on mercy "did me a lot of good".
Proposal of admission at communion of remarried couples Kasper met with controversy for his proposal to admit to
Communion Catholic couples who have remarried outside of the Church while still being canonically married to a prior spouse according to Catholic doctrine. On 21 February 2014, Kasper said at a
consistory in Rome that:"The Church cannot question the words of Jesus on the indissolubility of marriage. Whoever expects the Consistory and the Synod to come up with 'easy', general solutions that apply to everyone, are mistaken. But given the difficulties which families today face and the huge rise in the number of failed marriages, new paths can be explored in order to respond to the deep needs of divorced people who have remarried as part of a civil union, who recognise their failure, convert and after a period of penance ask to be re-admitted to the sacraments." The proposal was met with hostility by some conservative cardinals, including
Gerhard Müller,
Raymond Burke,
Walter Brandmüller,
Carlo Caffarra and
Velasio De Paolis, who co-authored the book
Remaining in the Truth of Christ: Marriage and Communion in the Catholic Church, released in English in October 2014, to refute Kasper's proposal. Kasper later admitted that he didn't have Pope Francis' support on his proposal. He praised Francis' 2016 apostolic exhortation
Amoris Laetitia, saying that the correct interpretation is that it allows the admission of divorced and remarried people to communion in some individual cases.
2014 General Synod During the
Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in 2014, Kasper told reporters that since African, Asian, and Middle Eastern countries have a "taboo" against homosexuality, "they should not tell us too much what we have to do." Once the story broke, he denied that he made any such comment. The reporter who wrote the story, Edward Pentin, subsequently produced a recording of the conversation, which verified that the Cardinal had made those statements. Kasper subsequently confirmed that he had had the conversation, and offered this response for one of his remarks: Kasper also said parts of the Catholic media were engaged in a "deliberate dirty tricks" campaign against him, and said that "The fact that Catholic media (and unfortunately a cardinal in person) should participate in it, in order to tear down another position morally, is shameful."
On Jesus Christ In his book
The God of Jesus Christ, Kasper concluded that what Jesus effected was to give suffering "eternal import, the import of love." Kasper points out that
Gregory of Nyssa and
Augustine of Hippo, working out of the New Testament, speak of a God who can freely choose to feel compassion, which implies suffering. Kasper adds that: "It is
Origen who gave us the clearest statement. In Origen's words: 'First God suffered, then he came down. What was the suffering he accepted for us? The suffering of love.' Origen adds that it is not just the Son but also the Father who suffers so. This is made possible by God's freedom in love." Kasper's book
Jesus the Christ (1974) treats Christology in three manners: a contemporary approach, a historical approach and a factual approach. After these three approaches have been exhausted, the Christological themes of resurrection, mystery, and priesthood are treated. Ecclesiology is seen as part of Christology in this book because the Church is oriented towards Christ in his person, since Christ did not only say things, but he also did things. == Works ==