* Joint report highlights growing consensus between churches
* Differences remain over papacy and views of ministry
* Globalisation, secularisation make old feuds seem obsolete
By Tom Heneghan and Tom Miles
PARIS/GENEVA, June 17 (Reuters) – Senior Roman Catholic and
Lutheran officials announced on Monday they would mark the 500th
anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 as a shared event rather
than highlight the clash that split Western Christianity.
The Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF)
presented a report in Geneva admitting both were guilty of
harming Christian unity in the past and describing a growing
consensus between the two churches in recent decades.
The 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, the
doctrinal challenge that launched the Protestant Reformation,
will be the first centenary celebration in the age of ecumenism,
globalisation and the secularisation of Western societies.
“The awareness is dawning on Lutherans and Catholics that
the struggle of the 16th century is over,” the report said. “The
reasons for mutually condemning each other’s faith have fallen
by the wayside.”
They now agree belief in Jesus unites them despite lingering
differences, it said, and inspires them to cooperate more
closely to proclaim the Gospel in increasingly pluralistic
societies.
“This is a very important step in a healing process which we
all need and we are all praying for,” LWF General Secretary
Martin Junge said at the report’s presentation in Geneva.
“The division of the church is something we cannot celebrate
but we can see what is positive and try to find ways towards the
future together,” said Cardinal Kurt Koch, head of the Vatican’s
department to promote Christian unity.
SEEKING COMMON GROUND
Roman Catholicism, the world’s largest church, has about 1.2
billion members or just over half of all Christians. There are
about 75 million Lutherans in LWF member churches and other
Lutheran groups around the world.
Catholics and Lutherans began seeking theological common
ground after the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council, which opened
the Roman church to better relations with other churches, and
have ironed out many of their differences over the decades.
They took a major step forward in 1999 by agreeing a common
view on justification, the doctrine at the core of their 16th
century dispute. At issue was whether Christians attained
eternal salvation by faith alone or also by doing good works.
Both sides admitted in the 93-page report that they had
often ridiculed each other’s teachings in the past, sinning
against the eighth commandment which bars giving false witness.
The Lutheran side confessed its shame and regret over “the
vicious and degrading statements that Martin Luther made against
the Jews” and rejected other “dark sides of Luther” including
his support for the persecution of Anabaptists.
The report said Christians in developing countries, now an
important region for both churches, could not identify with
500-year-old European rows. Secularisation in Western societies
in recent decades meant many old feuds were now forgotten there.
The rise of Pentecostal and charismatic movements over the
past century “have put forward new emphases that have made many
of the old confessional controversies seem obsolete”, it added.
STILL APART ON SOME ISSUES
The report said Luther’s 95 Theses were meant to begin a
debate about practices such as selling indulgences and were not
intended to found a new church. Both sides mishandled the crisis
that followed, leading to the final split.
Disputes over the authority of the Bible, which Lutherans
stress more than Catholics, have narrowed so much that lingering
differences would no longer justify maintaining their split, the
report said. It spoke of the two churches sharing “unity in
reconciled diversity” over these issues.
But while ecumenical dialogue has developed new common
understandings on some divisive points, other doctrines – such
as the office of the Catholic pope or the nature of the ordained
clergy – still remain significantly far apart.
The LWF said it wants to talk with Anglican, Mennonite,
Reformed, Orthodox and Pentecostal churches about how they might
also participate in the 2017 commemoration.
(Editing by Michael Roddy)
