Cardinal Kurt Koch had a meeting in Lviv with the Institute of Ecumenical Studies

During the visit to UCU, the cardinal made a report “Prospects of the ecumenical dialogue between the Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches” where he put an emphasis on the role of the Eastern Catholic Churches, in particular, in building ecumenical bridges. (full text of the lecture).
During the meeting with Cardinal Kurt Koch, the Executive Director of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies, Halyna Bokhonko introduced the staff of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies. The workers presented the main lines of scholarly activities of IES, namely, the distance and day master degree programs in Ecumenical Studies, the Ecumenical Social Week Forum and other projects.

The Head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in his turn stressed that it is very important for the ecumenical movement to inform. “Priests and lay people in the Church should have and form ideas on ecumenical questions. It is the responsibility of the Church, since we have now over 50 years of experience of the ecumenical movement and must think about ways to make progress.”

Cardinal Kurt Koch and the representatives of the institute exchanged ideas on the present status of the dialogue, historic situation of the Ukrainian Orthodoxy and its openness to ecumenism. The cardinal also showed interest in cooperation between IES and the Orthodox and Protestant Churches conducted by the institute thanks to the academic cooperation with representatives of other denominations by way of organizing conferences and round tables and study programs of the institute.

The meeting ended with the discussion of questions of further cooperation between the Institute of Ecumenical Studies and Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.