Putting aside centuries of hostility and prejudice, Lutherans and Catholics have agreed to celebrate together the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation in 2017.
In a joint document — entitled From Conflict to Communion — the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation said there is little purpose in dredging up centuries-old disagreements.
The lengthy text looks at the joint responsibility for the division of the Western Church in the 16th century, addressing the challenges of healing those memories and working together for reconciliation and common witness to the world.
Topics explored in the document include the basic themes of Martin Luther’s theology with a view to Lutheran–Catholic dialogue, as well as focusing on five ecumenical imperatives for the relationship between both churches as they commemorate 2017 together.
The birth of the Reformation is traditionally regarded as October 31, 1517, when Luther, a German monk and theologian, is thought to have nailed to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg his 95 theses addressing issues that he saw as urgently in need of reform.
Re-examining the history of the Reformation and the split it created, the document stresses that Luther “had no intention of establishing a new church, but was part of a broad and many-faceted desire for reform” within the Church.
“The fact that the struggle for this truth in the 16th century led to the loss of unity in Western Christendom belongs to the dark pages of Church history,” the document says. “In 2017, we must confess openly that we have been guilty before Christ of damaging the unity of the Church.”
The joint document acknowledges that in today’s world most Christians live in the Global South and thus “do not easily see the confessional conflicts of the 16th century as their own conflicts”.
Even in the Old World, “the awareness is dawning on Lutherans and Catholics that the struggle of the 16th century is over. The reasons for mutually condemning each other’s faith have fallen by the wayside.”
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Image: Time and Date