LUND, Sweden — Almost 500 years after Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses
to a church door, setting off more than a century of religious warfare
and forever changing the practice of Christianity worldwide, Pope Francis on Monday urged atonement and Christian reconciliation.
Visiting the cities of Lund and Malmo in southern Sweden for a joint Catholic-Lutheran commemoration of the Reformation,
the pope observed the 499th anniversary of Luther’s protest of the sale
of indulgences by noting the beneficial impact it had on Catholicism.
“With
gratitude we acknowledge that the Reformation helped give greater
centrality to sacred Scripture in the church’s life,” the pope said in a
joint declaration at Lund Cathedral with Bishop Munib A. Younan, the head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land and the president of the Lutheran World Federation.
The trip, which kicked off a year of events leading up to the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, was announced in January,
but it was no less striking for those who listened to the pope. Sweden
played a pivotal and troubling role in Protestant and Catholic history.
From the 16th century, Catholics were persecuted and even put to death
in Sweden. As recently as 1951, Catholics were barred from becoming
doctors, teachers and nurses, and Catholic convents were banned until
the 1970s.
Some
Catholics and Lutherans, especially those whose families are
intermingled, hoped that the event would produce a concrete step toward
the two churches’ allowing their members to take communion in each
other’s worship services. In their joint declaration, Pope Francis and
Bishop Younan acknowledged the divide, but said only that they were
working toward a resolution through dialogue.
“We
experience the pain of those who share their whole lives, but cannot
share God’s redeeming presence at the Eucharistic table,” the
declaration said. “We long for this wound in the body of Christ to be
healed. This is the goal of our ecumenical endeavors, which we wish to
advance, also by renewing our commitment to theological dialogue.”
The
Lutheran World Federation was founded in Lund in 1947, in an effort to
unite churches after World War II. One of the main obstacles to
relations between Lutherans and Roman Catholics was bridged in 1999,
when the Vatican and the federation signed a joint declaration on the doctrine of justification, a core belief about God’s forgiveness of sins.
Francis
was the first pope to visit Sweden in 27 years, and only the second
pope to visit the Scandinavian country. In Lund, he met with King Carl
XVI Gustaf, Queen Silvia and Prime Minister Stefan Lofven.
“We, too, must look with love and honesty at our past, recognizing error and seeking forgiveness,” Francis said.
The prayer service in Lund was watched by about 10,000 people who packed Malmo Arena, about 14 miles away, where Caritas and the Lutheran World Service, humanitarian arms of the two churches, pledged to work together for peace and justice.
Teresa
Jodar, 58, who lives in Stockholm but is a native of Valencia, Spain,
said she had taken the train from Stockholm to Malmo in the morning to
bear witness.
“This
is a historic event,” she said. “I am a Catholic. We are not
celebrating the Reformation. That was a sad separation. But we are
celebrating taking a step closer. It is wonderful that we can work
together instead of thinking about all of the differences that separate
us.”
Ms. Jodar said she planned to stay for an All Saints’ Day Mass that the pope will celebrate on Tuesday in Malmo for an estimated 19,000 people.
Her
friend Luisa Hugosson, 67, a native of Colombia, chimed in. “The pope’s
visit is good for Lutherans and Catholics,” Ms. Hugosson said. “We are
living in a new time, and we must be open and show respect.”
Carmen
Godawszky, 71, sat with three friends on a train from Stockholm to
Malmo, and they reflected on the pope’s message urging countries in
Europe to open their doors to migrants.
“Of
course, we can’t be against that,” Mrs. Godawszky said. “My husband
came to Sweden as a refugee from Hungary in 1956. Everyone has been a
refugee at one point or another. Just think of all the Swedes who moved
to the U.S.A. because they didn’t have food or money.”
Although Sweden is predominantly Lutheran, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockholm counts 113,000 members in 44 parishes throughout the country.
Anders Arborelius, who converted to Catholicism when he was 20, is the country’s first Catholic bishop of Swedish origin since the Reformation.
“We
are leaving the past behind us and focusing on what we have in common,
that we can together go out and help people,” he said in a telephone
interview on Sunday.
Although
the ecumenical service on Monday marked a reconciliation, there are
still major doctrinal differences between the churches, on subjects like
the role of women in the church and the Eucharist. NY Times
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