The Catholic–Lutheran dialogue is a series of discussions that began during July 1964 as an outgrowth of the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...

. These gatherings reflect the new openness of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American and British English spelling differences, American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literature, literary and theatrical form that depicts suc ...

with other

Christian denominations A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

as well as other religions. These dialogues have been primarily between representatives of the

Lutheran World Federation The Lutheran World Federation (LWF; ) is a global Communion (religion), communion of national and regional Lutheran denominations headquartered in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. The federation was founded in the Swedish city of L ...

and representatives of the ''

Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity The Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, previously named the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU), is a dicastery within the Holy See whose origins are associated with the Second Vatican Council which met intermittently fr ...

''. The Catholic–Lutheran dialogue within the United States have been conducted under the auspices of the U.S. Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and the USA National Committee of the

. The Catholic–Lutheran dialogue brought the

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant church headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA was officially formed on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three Lutheran church bodies. As of December 31, 2023, it ...

and the

Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

(LCMS) together to dialogue with the American Catholic community. The LCMS has not participated in all discussions. Unlike the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the LCMS has not come to an agreement with the Catholic Church due to differences in the understanding of various issues including

faith Faith is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept. In the context of religion, faith is " belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". According to the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, faith has multiple definitions, inc ...

grace Grace may refer to: Places United States * Grace, Idaho, a city * Grace (CTA station), Chicago Transit Authority's Howard Line, Illinois * Little Goose Creek (Kentucky), location of Grace post office * Grace, Carroll County, Missouri, an uni ...

, and

sin In religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law or a law of the deities. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered ...

. After the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic–Lutheran dialogue culminated in the '' Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification'' (1999) and the '' Statement on the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation with Pope Francis and Bishop Munib Younan in a special Catholic-Lutheran dialogue'' (2016), which essentially resolved the core theological conflict of

Martin Luther Martin Luther ( ; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, Theology, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Reformation, Pr ...

and subsequent adversaries. This conflict was further eased by the

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is a Christian Full communion, communion consisting of the Church of England and other autocephalous national and regional churches in full communion. The archbishop of Canterbury in England acts as a focus of unity, ...

doing the same.

Rounds of discussion

Starting in July 1964, over 50 sessions have been held taking up eleven rounds of topics : * I. The Status of the

Nicene Creed The Nicene Creed, also called the Creed of Constantinople, is the defining statement of belief of Nicene Christianity and in those Christian denominations that adhere to it. The original Nicene Creed was first adopted at the First Council of N ...

as Dogma of the Church (1965) * II. One Baptism for the Remission of Sins (1966) * III. The Eucharist as Sacrifice (1968) * IV. Eucharist and Ministry (1970) * V.

Papal Primacy Papal primacy, also known as the primacy of the bishop of Rome, is an ecclesiological doctrine in the Catholic Church concerning the respect and authority that is due to the pope from other bishops and their episcopal sees. While the doctri ...

and the Universal Church (1973) * VI. Teaching Authority & Infallibility in the Church (1978) * VII. Justification by Faith (1983) * VIII. The One Mediator, the Saints, and Mary (1990) * IX. Scripture and Tradition (1995) * X. The Church as Koinonia of Salvation: Its Structures and Ministries (2004) * XI. The Hope for Eternal Life (2010) *XII. Ministries of Teaching (2011)

Subsequent events

Significant events following these dialogues included a joint statement on the doctrine of ''Justification by Faith'' issued in 1983 and the '' Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification'' issued on 31 October 1999. In 2010, the Catholic–Lutheran dialogue completed a common statement entitled ''The Hope of Eternal Life''. In 2015, Lutherans and Roman Catholics jointly issued the ''Declaration on the Way: Church, Ministry and Eucharist'', an ecumenical document marking greater visible unity between Catholics and Lutherans. The

and the

hosted a joint Ecumenical Commemoration event at Lund Cathedral in Lund, Sweden, on 31 October 2016. This was a shared Catholic–Lutheran commemoration of the 499th anniversary of the posting by

of the '' Ninety-five Theses'' at All Saint's Church in

Wittenberg Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is the fourth-largest town in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, in the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. It is situated on the River Elbe, north of Leipzig and south-west of the reunified German ...

, Germany, in 1517.

Documents

;Catholic–Lutheran Joint Commission *"First Official Report of the Joint Working Group" (1966) *"The Gospel and the Church" (1972) *The Eucharist (1978) *"Statement on the Augsburg Confession" (1980) *"Ways to Community" (1980) *"The Ministry in the Church" (1981) *"Martin Luther - Witness to Jesus Christ" (1983) *"Facing Unity. Models, Forms and Phases of Catholic-Lutheran Church Fellowship" (1984) *"Church and Justification" (1994) ;Catholic–Lutheran dialogue in the USA *The Status of the Nicene Creed as Dogma of the Church (7 July 1965) *One Baptism for the Remission of Sins (13 February 1966) *The Eucharist (1 October 1967) *Eucharist and Ministry (1970) *Differing Attitudes Toward Papal Primacy (1973) *Teaching Authority and Infallibility in the Church (1978) *Justification by Faith (1983) *The One Mediator, the Saints, and Mary (1990) *Scripture and Tradition (1995) *The Church as Koinonia of Salvation: Its Structures and Ministries (2004) *The Hope of Eternal Life (1 November 2010) ;Ecumenical Working Group of Catholic and Lutheran theologians in Germany *"The Condemnations of the Reformation Era - Do They Still Divide?" (1986) ;Catholic–Lutheran Commission on Unity *From Conflict to Communion: Catholic–Lutheran Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017 (2013) ;Joint Declarations * Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (1999)

Eucharistic sharing between Catholics and Lutherans

Susan Wood, a Sister of Charity, who is a systematic theology professor and chair of the theology department at

Marquette University Marquette University () is a Private university, private Jesuit research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It was established as Marquette College on August 28, 1881, by John Henni, the first Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Ar ...

and a former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, stated that "Since Vatican II, we have acknowledged an imperfect communion between Lutheran and Catholics" and that "there is no substantial difference in Lutheran and Catholic belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist". Wood stated that in the near future intercommunion could happen in places "where people can't get out, like nursing homes and prisons". On 15 November 2015, while at Christuskirche in Rome Pope Francis answered a Lutheran woman wishing to be able to participate in Holy Communion with her Catholic husband: "It is a question that each person must answer for themselves … there is one baptism, one faith, one Lord, so talk to the Lord and move forward". In the following year at Lund Cathedral, in a joint Lutheran-Catholic service commemorating the Reformation, Pope Francis and Bishop Munib Younan (the head of the

) "jointly pledged to remove the obstacles to full unity between their Churches, leading eventually to shared Eucharist". Recognizing that "that everyone in a marriage that binds denominations", the Catholic Church in Germany in 2018 produced a pastoral handout allowing

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

spouses of Catholics to receive Communion from Catholic ministers in certain cases, "provided they 'affirm the Catholic faith in the Eucharist'". Thus far, Archbishop Hans-Josef Becker ( Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Paderborn), Archbishop Stefan Heße ( Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hamburg), Archbishop Ludwig Schick (

Roman Catholic Diocese of Fulda The Diocese of Fulda () is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in the north of the German state of Hessen. It is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Paderborn. The bishop's seat is in Fulda Cathedral. History The history of ...

), and Bishop Franz Jung ( Roman Catholic Diocese of Würzburg) have implemented the pastoral document, in addition to Bishops Gerhard Feige of Magdeburg and Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück declaring their intention to implement the pastoral document well. Bishop Franz Jung, while celebrating a Jubilee Mass on 5 July 2018 at

Würzburg Cathedral Würzburg Cathedral () is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany, dedicated to Saint Kilian. It is the seat of the Bishop of Würzburg and has served as the burial place for the Prince-Bishops of Würzburg for hundreds of ye ...

, called inter-denominational marriages "denomination-uniting" and thus "especially invited" couples in which one spouse is Protestant to receive the Eucharist during his sermon.

References

External links