November 16, 2005

VATICAN CITY – Lutherans and Roman Catholics began planning for 2017 with recognition of their movement toward reconciliation during the past 500 years and with a renewed commitment to continue in that direction. 2017 will be the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, which traditionally began Oct. 31, 1517, when Dr. Martin Luther nailed 95 theses to the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany.

Ecumenical staff of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) held their regular meeting here Nov. 7-8. The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, LWF president and presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Chicago, participated.

The international dialogue, the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity, is finishing its fourth round of talks and plans to have a final document on "The Apostolicity of the Church" ready for publication in 2006. The staff meeting considered details for concluding the fourth round and possible topics for the fifth round of dialogue.

The meeting followed a private audience Nov. 7 for a seven- member Lutheran delegation with Pope Benedict XVI. Hanson opened the audience with a formal statement; the pope read a formal statement in English; and the audience closed with an informal conversation in English and German.

"The pope knows Lutherans and Lutheran theology very well, since he comes from Germany, the country of the Reformation, but this was a special event that representatives of the Lutheran World Federation met the former Cardinal Ratzinger for the first time as Pope Benedict XVI," said the Rev. Theodor Dieter, director, Institute for Ecumenical Research, Strasbourg, France.

Hanson emphasized that Lutherans confess "the one faith of the holy and catholic and apostolic Church" in the creeds and the Lutheran Confessions, Dieter said. Hanson pointed to the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, which the LWF and Vatican signed in 1999, as an example of Catholic-Lutheran consensus that may be possible on other topics.

The pope also referred to the Joint Declaration, "which is very important because it shows that the pope also sees this as a still important, basic agreement with the Lutherans," Dieter said. "The pope emphasized the continuous and ongoing commitment of the Catholic Church to the dialogues," he said.

"On the other hand the pope spoke of some concerns he had that a common heritage between Lutherans and Catholics could in some areas be undermined. This is a concern the Lutherans should take very seriously," Dieter said.

Dieter and the Rev. Joachim Track, German theologian and chair of the LWF program committee for ecumenical affairs, raised two theological questions in German during the informal portion of the audience.

"The questions related to a talk which the pope had given at the World Youth Day in Cologne when he met with representatives of other Christian churches in Germany," Dieter said. The pope had said differences between Lutherans and Catholics were less about the orders of ministry and more about the Word of God, those who bear witness to the Word and interpreting the Word according to the "rule of faith."

Dieter and Track asked Pope Benedict XVI to explain those differences. "The pope smiled and said that precisely this is the task of the dialogue – to define the differences and also the possibility of overcoming the differences more clearly and in a more detailed way," Dieter said. "He seemed very interested to hear of the results of such an investigation."

The pope's comments gave the following staff meeting two additional topics – "what the pope could have meant by areas where the common heritage could be undermined or taken into question" and what he meant by his comments in Cologne, Dieter said.

Planning for 2017 and a New Round of Dialogue

The staff meeting's agenda considered details for concluding the fourth round of international dialogues, particulars for the fifth round and plans for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

The fourth round of talks took 10 years to develop "The Apostolicity of the Church," which will be issued in the fall of 2006, said the Rev. Ishmael Noko, LWF general secretary, Geneva. The conclusion of the fifth round will probably coincide with the 500th anniversary in 2017, he said.

"Our idea is that the commission would take up at the beginning of its mandate a deep, profound study of what the Reformation meant and what it has meant down the centuries and what it actually means today for both of us," said Bishop Brian Farrell, PCPCU secretary.

"That should lead us then to the essential questions which are still at the heart of our relationship," Farrell said. "We will obviously have to revisit the theme of justification and those points that still remain to be developed" as well as items Pope Benedict XVI raised during the audience, he said.

"Lutherans look at Catholics from the point of view of the 16th century, and we define ourselves vis-a-vis the Catholic of the 16th century, which is not correct," Noko said. "The Roman Catholic Church has moved since that time as much as we have moved toward a new expression of self-understanding of the Lutheran church," he said.

Noko said he thought it was important for Lutherans and Roman Catholics to prepare for the 500th anniversary together, "so that we are not commemorating that we became Lutherans, but we are commemorating that through the reformers the Church was constantly renewed."

Staff agreed there should be a special working group of Lutherans to coordinate events surrounding 2017 and to plan one or two international events, Noko said. The working group will explore what can be done ecumenically to observe the anniversary.

The audience with Pope Benedict XVI clarified the ecumenical commitment of the Vatican and pushed the Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogue forward, Noko said.

The "visitation" of church leaders is more than a photo opportunity, Noko said. "It does keep alive the apostolicity of the church and its traditions. Visiting one another is an old apostolic tradition."

Farrell pointed out that Pope Benedict XVI contributed to the earlier Lutheran-Roman Catholic discussion on justification. "At the beginning of his pontificate, the leadership of the Lutheran World Federation was here to visit and, although briefly, to discuss with him the future of our relationship," he said.

"It commits us more than ever to continue along this path and to deepen, if possible, this path of mutual discovery of all that we have in common, the things that divide us and, as the pope himself said in his words, to see what gifts we have to exchange with one another," Farrell said.

"We have a lot of work to do," Farrell said. "It is a great human adventure in which we are living under the impulse of God's grace. So, we're excited about doing it," he said.

Farrell and Noko co-chaired the staff meeting. Lutheran participants were Karin Achtelstetter, LWF deputy general secretary, Geneva; Dieter; Hanson; the Rev. Sven Oppegaard, LWF assistant general secretary for ecumenical affairs, Geneva; and Track. PCPCU staff participants were the Rev. John A. Radano and the Rev. Matthias Tuerk.

The official text of Bishop Hanson's presentation during the Nov. 7 papal audience is in a PDF file at http://tinyurl.com/ajzj7 on the LWF Web site. The official text of Pope Benedict XVI's remarks is at http://tinyurl.com/dboj6 on the Vatican Web site.

ELCA News Service