(Katholisch.de. FELIX NEUMANN)
Even popes have realistically assessed what the papacy means for ecumenism. Paul VI described his office as the “greatest obstacle” on the path to church unity. With the primacy of jurisdiction and infallibility, the First Vatican Council drove in stakes that are almost impossible to circumvent, and whose status as dogma cemented what was already pretty entrenched. Even below this highest level of formally proclaimed dogma, however, it is not just the papacy in general that is an obstacle to ecumenism, but also many of the decisions of the incumbent pope – despite all the signs, from the cordial dialogue with Orthodox and Anglicans to the inclusion of Coptic martyrs in the Catholic calendar of saints to the reinstatement of the title of Patriarch of the West. The Anglican Ordinariates are still committed to the return to ecumenism, which has long since been overcome with regard to the Eastern Churches. Recognition of Anglican ordinations is not up for debate. The reason for declaring them null and void in the 19th century was questions about the ordination rite – today the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith makes the wording of sacraments so strong that the validity of the sacraments in separate churches is called into question.