Vatican City, Oct 31, 2017 / 10:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Reformation anniversary gives us a renewed impetus to work for reconciliation, said a statement released jointly Tuesday by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Lutheran World Federation.
“We recognize that while the past cannot be changed, its influence upon us today can be transformed to become a stimulus for growing communion, and a sign of hope for the world to overcome division and fragmentation,” it said Oct. 31.
“Again, it has become clear that what we have in common is far more than that which still divides us.”
The statement was released to mark the end of the year of common commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity is the Roman Curia’s office for ecumenism, while the Lutheran World Federation is the largest communion of Lutheran ecclesial communities. In the US, the Lutheran World Federation includes the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, but neither the Missouri nor Wisconsin Synods.
The common commemoration was opened last year with an ecumenical prayer service between Lutherans and Catholics at the Lutheran cathedral in Lund, Sweden during the Pope’s Oct. 31-Nov. 1, 2016 visit.
During the service, Catholics and Lutherans read out five joint ecumenical commitments, including the commitment to always begin from a perspective of unity. Pope Francis and Munib Younan, then-president of the Lutheran World Federation and Lutheran bishop of Jordan and the Holy Land, also signed a joint statement.
Quoting the 2016 declaration between Pope Francis and Younan, this year’s statement acknowledged the pain of disunity, particularly that caused by the inability to share in the Eucharist.
“We acknowledge our joint pastoral responsibility to respond to the spiritual thirst and hunger of our people to be one in Christ. 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 statement declared.
The new statement also emphasized the commitment to continue this journey toward unity “guided by God’s Spirit…according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
With God’s help, we hope to continue to seek “substantial consensus” on issues pertaining to the Church, Eucharist, and ministry, it said. “With deep joy and gratitude we trust ‘that He who has begun a good work in [us] will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ’.”
They gave thanksgiving for the spiritual and theological gifts received through the Reformation, as well as the need to ask forgiveness for failures and the ways in which “Christians have wounded the Body of Christ and offended each other” over the past 500 years.
One positive effect of the past year’s common commemoration has been viewing the Reformation with an ecumenical perspective for the first time, it concluded.
“In the face of so many blessings along the way, we raise our hearts in praise of the Triune God for the mercy we receive.”
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I will consider nothing that Leo writes until he apologizes to the entire Catholic Church for backing Cupich’s move to bestow honors on a politician who did everything in his power to advance the cause of abortion in the USA.
I feel your hate.
Unlike that duplicitous footnote to chapter 8 to Amoris Laetitia, might we hope that the possible papal ghostwriter notes a real compass point? Not morally subversive (nor an alleged evasion from temporal desperation), but recalling theological and personal hope in the whole Christ, such as:
“Evangelization will also contain—as the foundation, center and at the same time summit of its dynamism—a clear proclamation that, in Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, who died and rose from the dead, salvation is offered to all men, as a gift of God’s grace and mercy [fn—Cf. Eph 2:8, Rom 1:16]. And not an immanent salvation, meeting material or even spiritual needs, restricted to the framework of temporal existence and completely identified with temporal desires, hopes, affairs and struggles, but a salvation which exceeds all these limits in order to reach fulfillment in a communion with the one and only divine Absolute: a transcendent and eschatological salvation, which indeed has its beginning in this life but is fulfilled in eternity” (Paul VI, the apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Nuntiandi,” on the 1975 Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, n. 27).
I will consider everything Leo writes because he is my Pope, the Vicar of Christ.
“Vicar of Christ” Wasn’t that the papal appellation that Bergoglio rejected for himself?
That would be a good first start, followed by a second apology for meeting, encouraging, and supporting James Martin, SCH. We probably shouldn’t hold our breath waiting.
Dilexi te. If indeed you love me, keep my commandments (Jesus in Jn 14:15).
As reported by Pew Research only 9% of Roman Catholics believe in the Most Blessed Trinity. On the face of it that means 91% of those describing themselves as Roman Catholics aren’t.
Emergency for Pope Leo. There are many many who can deal with the poverty issue besides the Pope. The Pope, on the other hand, is perhaps the only voice who can call attention to the tragedy that 91% of self-identified Roman Catholics are deprived of the truths of the Faith.
What will the Pope do? If the current pontificate — which resembles more the Cupich-by-proxy pontificate — it would appear this disaster will be overlooked. Not quite relevant?
Are you referring to this March 2025 Barna Research poll? It’s apparently a “research report from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University [that] shows that only 11% of American adults, and only 16% of self-proclaimed Christians, believe in the trinity.” I’ve looked at it, and have questions. The methodology is not clear at all. The language is a bit strange; for example: “How Demographic Segments Perceive the Trinity (Percentage who believe in the existence and human influence of each Person of the Trinity)”. What does “human influence” refer to here? The Second Person of the Trinity, who is fully human and fully divine by virtue of the Incarnation, has “human influence”, but how does this apply to the Father and the Holy Spirit. In addition, we read: “Less than half as many Catholics (9%) are trinitarians.” Well, most Catholics don’t use the term “trinitarian” to describe themselves, even though it’s accurate. My guess is that some respondents were confused by the questions, which don’t appear to be available. Bottom line: as poor as catechesis often is, I have a really hard time believing that only 9% of Catholics say they believe in the Trinity.
And reportedly, some seventy-five percent of Catholics deny the Real Presence.
Dilexi te.
Tough love or empathy?
The Way of the Cross or cheap grace?
Is there anything new to say about the poor? – if that is what the
exhortation is about. Perhaps we should get back to the basics of
the faith, to the commandments, to basic morality. Many people are
searching for meaning and purpose in life. Another sermon about
the poor doesn’t address the deepest questions humans have.