Catholic, Lutheran and Methodist leaders to mark 10th anniversary of Joint Declaration on Justification

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Cardinal Francis George / Bishop Mark Hanson

Washington D.C., Sep 30, 2009 / 02:49 am (CNA).- Catholic, Lutheran and Methodist church leaders will mark the tenth anniversary of a joint agreement on the Doctrine of Justification in a meeting in downtown Chicago on Thursday. A service including Evening Prayer and tributes to the joint declaration will be held at Old St. Patrick’s Church, a press release from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) reports.

The Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation signed the Joint Declaration on October 31, 1999. It was the product of nearly 35 years of Lutheran-Catholic dialogue in the United States and abroad.

Fr. James Massa, Executive Director for the USCCB’s Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, said the anniversary is “an historic moment on the journey toward Christian unity.”

“The Joint Declaration expressed a common understanding of how human beings are made right with God through the life-giving death of Jesus Christ,” he added.

In 2006, the World Methodist Council also affirmed the joint declaration as an expression of how Methodists understand the nature of salvation as a gift that equips believers for good works of justice and compassion in the world.

USCCB president and Archbishop of Chicago Cardinal Francis George and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s (ELCA) Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson will lead the prayer service. The service, which will begin at 6:30 pm, will include choral music and a solemn reading of the Word of God.

Bishop Hanson is also President of the Lutheran World Foundation, the global Lutheran partner to the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council.

Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta, Chairman of the bishops’ Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, and Dr. Ishmael Noko, General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, also will speak.

The president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, Bishop Gregory Palmer, will represent the United Methodist Church.

Attendees will include numerous Lutheran, Methodist and Catholic bishops and clergy and laity from various Christian traditions.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, was with Dr. Noko one of the four official signers of the Declaration ten years ago. He recently expressed hope that the Declaration would become a “joint commitment to deepen our common prayer.”

“May it encourage us to continue our theological dialogue, and building on our common foundations, may it lead to an increase in joint witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” he said.

Justification by faith was a point of theological controversy between Martin Luther and the Catholic Church in the period Protestants call the Reformation. Lutherans accused Catholics of believing in salvation by works, while Catholics held that Lutherans and other Protestants had divorced faith from the other two supernatural virtues of hope and love.

The Joint Declaration identified a consensus behind the controversy, saying “Together we confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works.”

More information on Catholic-Protestant relations is available at the website of the USCCB Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs: http://www.usccb.org/seia.

Comments: 4

Subscriber comments:

Published by: Chris Roberts
Mercer Island, WA 10/01/2009 01:11 PM EST

This is a major doctrinal step to unity, but with every passing year the Lutherans and Methodists become more heretical in terms of their moral values as they are weak on abortion, support active gays in ministry, weak on euthanasia, weak on embryonic stem cell research, etc. Ecclesially, they need to stop making women Priests or Ministers of any type as this is clearly non-scriptural and against the constant witness of Tradition. They have a long ways to go!

Published by: Bobby Robson
Gainesville, Georgia 09/30/2009 11:33 AM EST

Faith and Works(charity,love) "May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, and may charity be the root and foundation of your life. Thus you will be able to grasp fully, with all the holy ones, the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ's love, and experience this love which surpasses all knowledge, so that you may attain to the fullness of God Himself." (Ephesians 3:17-19)

Published by: Giordano
Ohio 09/30/2009 09:53 AM EST

This news bite is a bit deceptive. There is no official common agreement between the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation (which does not encompass all Lutheran Confessions). Rather the "Joint Declaration" was only such between a Vatican commission, which itself does not speak on behalf of the Holy See, and was never accepted by the Holy See in toto. In fact the official reception of the Joint Declaration was, while being praised for its effort as a "significat progress in mutual understanding" goes on to clarify, by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, that there is no complete consensus and actually corrects certain Catholic positions that the Council for Promoting Christian Unity, seems to have glossed over in the Joint Declaration. See here for the Holy See's official response to the Joint Declaration: http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/PCPULUTH.HTM While the Joint Declaration is a significant step forward we should not be presenting it by any means as the final word or as representative of a point of no further disagreement between Lutherns and the Catholic Church on the doctrine of justification.

Published by: Bob
Astoria, NY 09/30/2009 07:56 AM EST

Great! Now all we have to do is get over some of those other little speed bumps to unity (like the meaning and purpose of Holy Orders, the sacrificial nature of the Eucharistic celebration, the Real Presence, what is meant by the "unity" for which we're striving, the role of papal authority in the Church, homosexual unions, and female and openly gay clergy) and we'll be all set. I'm all for the unity of the Church and an end to the scandal that has divided the Body of Christ for far too long. The document celebrated seems to have been a step in the right direction, clarifying the Church's theology without compromising it. If similar measures can be achieved in other key issues without compromising the Faith, truly we'll have something of value, perhaps even unity.

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