Kasper Denies the Apostolic Succession:
Will No One Rid Us of this Heretic?

by Christopher A. Ferrara

        The scandal of the elevation of Walter Kasper to cardinal and to the post of head of the Pontifical Commission for the Promotion of "Christian Unity" deepens with each passing day. Kasper has already publicly denied the necessity of the return of the dissidents to the one true Church — thus "overruling" the constant teaching of the preconciliar popes. He has also pronounced the Old Covenant "still salvific" for the Jews — thus overruling the New Testament as well as 2,000 years of Church teaching.

        Now Kasper has publicly denied Church teaching on the apostolic succession! The latest Kasper heresy came in an address filled with theological errors that he delivered to a Catholic-Anglican conference in late May 2003. In this address Kasper proclaimed, among other outrages, that "Jesus was well aware… that his disciples would not be one, and that they would be dispersed. What else could he (sic) do in this situation than to leave the future of his work in the hands of his Father? Thus the words ‘May they all be one’ are a prayer, a prayer in a humanly perceived hopeless situation."

        Our Lord never "predicted" anything of the kind. His prayer "May they all be one" related to those who were not disciples because they were not of the fold of the one true Church, and would have to be brought into the fold by the true disciples. Kasper here flatly contradicts the defined dogma of the unity of the Catholic Church, which denial he confirmed when he added: "The unity of the Church can be accomplished only by a renewed Pentecost…" In other words, according to Kasper the unity of "the Church" has yet to be accomplished. Heresy, pure and simple.

        But Kasper the Friendly Heretic was just getting warmed up. After declaring that "it is not possible to draw a blueprint of the future unity of the Church" he dared to declare that unity between Catholics and Anglican is "not a question of apostolic succession in the sense of an historical chain of laying on of hands running back through the centuries to one of the apostles — this would be a very mechanical and individualistic vision, which, by the way, historically could hardly be proved and ascertained."

        Yes, you read him rightly: Kasper denies both the nature and the historicity of the Apostolic Succession! Lest there be no doubt of his position, Kasper added: "To stand in the apostolic succession is not a matter of an individual historical chain, but of collegial membership in a collegium, which, as a whole, goes back to the apostles by sharing the same apostolic faith and the same apostolic mission…. Such acknowledgement is not a question of an uninterrupted chain, but of the uninterrupted sharing of faith and mission, and as such is a question of communion in the same faith and in the same mission."

        Outrageous! How can a bishop and the priests he purports to ordain be in the Apostolic Succession if they cannot demonstrate that they stand in the "historical chain" of valid ordinations and episcopal consecrations Kasper would dispense with? Indeed, the Apostolic Succession, being a succession of one bishop by another all the way back to the original Twelve Apostles, is by its very nature a historical chain.

        You see, dear reader, what Kasper is trying to do: He is trying to replace the Apostolic Succession with a vague "communion" that would include present-day non-Catholic ministers claiming to be bishops. In this way he hopes to circumvent the infallible declaration of Pope Leo XIII in Apostolicae Curae (1896) that the Anglican Church broke the Apostolic Succession by adopting an invalid ordination rite, so that it ceased to ordain valid priests or to consecrate valid bishops. Let Kasper the Friendly Heretic convict himself: "It is beyond the scope of our present context to discuss what this means for a re-evaluation of Apostolicae Curae (1896) of Pope Leo XIII, who declared Anglican orders null and void, a decision that still stands between our Churches. Without doubt, this decision, as Cardinal Willebrands had already affirmed, must be understood in our new ecumenical context in which our communion in faith and mission has considerably grown."

        That’s right, folks, Kasper openly calls for a "re-evaluation" and a "new" understanding of Pope Leo’s infallible and thus irreformable pronouncement! He even has the temerity to question the infallible definition of papal primacy at the First Vatican Council (1869/70). Kasper actually claims that "the historical conditionality of the dogma of the First Vatican Council (1869/70)… must be distinguished from its remaining obligatory content." Remaining obligatory content?

        The continued presence of this man in one of the highest offices in the Church is one of the worst scandals in Church history. We, the members of the rank-and-file faithful, are entitled to ask: Why in Heaven’s name did Pope John Paul II make this heretic a cardinal? Here we see yet another sign of the diabolical disorientation of the Church doubtlessly foretold in the Third Secret of Fatima, which begins with the words "In Portugal the dogma of the faith will always be preserved etc." Clearly, the dogmas of the faith are not being preserved at the Pontifical Council of which Kasper, incredibly, has been made the head.

        The Pope has a duty — an urgent duty — to remove this wolf from his high office in the Church. And that would just be one small step in the long march back toward the inevitable restoration of the Catholic Church.