(Andrea Gagliarducci. Monday Vatican).
The presentation of the document “The Bishop of Rome” on June 13 was occasion for a a rare exercise in parrhesia (candor) when Cardinal Kurt Koch responded to a question about the ecumenical impact of Fiducia Supplicans. It was a reasonable question, since the Coptic Orthodox Church decided to suspend theological dialogue over the document.
That fact alone was potentially very telling, since dialogue between the Coptic Orthodox and the Catholic Church was going very well until it wasn’t. The leader of the Copts, Pope Tawadros of Alexandria, had even appeared alongside Pope Francis at a general audience while visiting – among other things – for the historic recording of the Coptic martyrs of Libya in the Roman martyrology.