From Conflict to Communion: Catholics and Lutherans Will Recall Reformation

Nearly 500 years ago, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of a German church, beginning the Protestant Reformation that led millions to break with the Roman Catholic Church and ushered in more than a century of conflict and war.

On Monday, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis will participate in a joint Lutheran-Catholic worship service in Sweden this October, kicking off a series of events planned for 2017 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

The effort to mend relations with Protestants has been on the agenda of many popes before Francis, but it is a delicate endeavor. The worship service in Sweden was billed by its sponsors, the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation, as a “commemoration,” not as a “celebration,” in order to avoid any inappropriate note of triumphalism. Some Catholics have criticized the notion of a pope celebrating the anniversary of a schism.

Francis addressed the troubled history between the Christian churches as he led an ecumenical vespers service at a basilica in Rome on Monday to mark the closing day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. He appealed for forgiveness for “the sin of our divisions, an open wound in the Body of Christ.”

He added that “when together the Christians of different churches listen to the word of God and try to put it in practice, they achieve important steps toward unity.”

The year 2017 is also the 50th anniversary of the start of an international dialogue between Catholic and Lutheran theologians. The dialogue produced a significant document in 1999, the “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification,” which established a common understanding on core questions about sin and salvation. In 2013, the two bodies published a joint study document, “From Conflict to Communion.”

Dialogue between Lutherans and Catholics has been “on the front burner” of both churches for years, and has resulted in more significant progress than many other ecumenical initiatives, said Michael Root, an expert on and participant in Lutheran-Catholic dialogue, and a professor of systematic theology at Catholic University of America, in Washington.

He said it was notable that the joint worship service would be in Sweden.

“There’s been a great recognition that particularly the Scandinavian Lutherans have a greater affinity for the Catholic world than the Germans or Americans,” Professor Root said. “They kept a more traditional church structure and style, and oddly enough, because there are virtually no Catholics in Sweden, it makes relations easier. There’s no history of competition and no history of warfare.”

Despite historic strides, Catholics and Lutherans are still officially barred from receiving communion in each other’s churches. Francis stirred up a controversy last year when he visited a Lutheran church in Rome and, during a question-and-answer session, suggested to a Lutheran woman married to a Catholic man that perhaps, if her conscience permitted, she could receive communion in her husband’s church.

“I wouldn’t ever dare to allow this, because it’s not my competence,” Francis told the woman, according to news reports, then added: “One baptism, one Lord, one faith. Talk to the Lord and then go forward. I don’t dare to say anything more.”

The joint service, to be held at the cathedral in Lund on Oct. 31, is sponsored by the Lutheran World Federation, the global umbrella for 72 million Lutherans in 98 countries, and the Roman Catholic Church. The service will be led by Pope Francis and both the president and the general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation.

The Rev. Martin Junge, the general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, said in a statement, “By working towards reconciliation between Lutherans and Catholics, we are working towards justice, peace and reconciliation in a world torn apart by conflict and violence.”

The two churches released a liturgical guide last month, “Common Prayer,” to be used in commemorations of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. A website for Catholic traditionalists, Rorate Caeli, pronounced some of the prayers “scandalous,” claiming they extolled Martin Luther.                   NYTimes