Cardinal Kurt Koch receives honorary doctorate from CU

9 January 2025

Cardinal Kurt Koch receives honorary doctorate from Charles University

Cardinal Kurt Koch received a diploma confirming the award of the honorary degree of Doctor honoris causa of theological sciences at the Carolinum. The ceremony, overseen by the rector of the Charles University Milena Králíčková, took place in the Great Hall on Wednesday 8 January.

The honorary scientific degree is awarded by the University to personalities who have made a significant international contribution to the development of science, culture or have otherwise contributed to the benefit of humanity. The awarding of this title to Cardinal and Bishop Emeritus of Basel Kurt Koch was proposed jointly by all three theological faculties of the University, i.e. Evangelical, Hussite and Catholic, for the promotion and development of dialogue between Christian denominations and between Christianity and Judaism. The Dean of the Catholic Theological Faculty of Charles University, Jaroslav Brož, then briefly introduced Kurt Koch to the audience present.

Cardinal Kurt Koch with the rector of Charles University, Milena Králíčková.

"In today's society, which is characterized by many social, cultural and religious contradictions, tensions and fragmentation, and which cannot always be described as a healthy pluralism, every act leading to harmony and unity and every person who promotes these values, or even makes them his or her life's mission, is a great contribution. Our dear guest, the theologian Cardinal Kurt Koch, is such a person," Dean Brož emphasised.

Jaroslav Brož, Dean of the Catholic Theological Faculty of Charles University.

Kurt Koch comes from Switzerland. He completed his theological studies at the University of Munich and in Lucerne, where he also worked for several years. Later he also lectured at the University of Fribourg. At the end of the 1980s he became professor of dogmatics, liturgics and ecumenical theology. He is the author of several hundred theological publications, including more than 60 monographs. He is also the recipient of several honorary degrees from universities across the world.

He has been interested in ecumenism since his youth. He was ordained a priest in 1982 and appointed Bishop of Basel by Pope John Paul II in 1995. From 1998 to 2006 he served as vice-president of the Swiss Bishops' Conference, and from 2007 to 2009 he was its president. A year later, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him archbishop, cardinal and president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. He still leads this Vatican organization (albeit under the new name of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity). He is also President of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.

Dean Jaroslav Brož then explained the close ties that bind Kurt Koch to all the theological faculties of the University. "In his Vatican post, Koch is an official partner of the Czech Bishops' Conference, especially its Council for Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue. This cooperation creates a framework in which ecumenically open theological research is also cultivated at the Catholic Faculty of Theology, the Evangelical Faculty of Theology and the Hussite Faculty of Theology at Charles University. In this way, the legacy of the Second Vatican Council, especially its decree Unitatis redintegratio on ecumenism and the declaration Nostra aetate on the relationship of the Church to non-Christian religions, is being fulfilled today. This follows the legacy of the exiled Archbishop of Prague, Cardinal Josef Beran, who at the Second Vatican Council strongly expressed the need to respect religious freedom in today's world," the dean noted.

After the ceremony, Cardinal Kurt Koch added his signature to the university's memorial book.

After Cardinal Kurt Koch took his graduation vow in the Carolinum, he gave a short lecture on the theme of Being Disciples of God. On the meaning and mission of Christian theology, in which he reflected on the meaning and mission of Christian theology.

"It is precisely from the Christian idea of God that theology seeks to prove the veracity and reasonableness of the Christian faith, and thus the intrinsic correspondence of fides et ratio, faith and reason. For the Christian faith in no way contradicts human reason, but on the contrary opens reason, and thus a new horizon, to the thinking person. Faith and reason are therefore interdependent and only in mutual dialogue can they overcome both the ills of faith and the pathologies of reason. For faith without reason is in danger of obscuring its truth and becoming fundamentalist, and reason without faith is in danger of becoming one-sided and one-dimensional. The fact that the Christian faith seeks and cultivates contact and dialogue with human thought stems from the very nature of this faith, namely that it seeks its own rational justification and in it the rationality of all that is real and claims to be true, and then expects people to be able to recognize the truth," Cardinal Koch emphasised.

TEXT: Helena Zdráhalová

PHOTO: Vladimír Šigut

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