Lutheran Leader Seeks Communion Agreement With Pope

By Luigi Sandri
Religion News Service

ROME (RNS/ENInews) The president of the Lutheran World Federation is calling on Lutherans and Catholics to issue a common statement on Holy Communion to mark the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation in 2017.

"Our intention is to arrive at 2017 with a common Roman Catholic-Lutheran declaration on Eucharistic hospitality," Bishop Munib Younan told the Italian Protestant news agency NEV before meeting with Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday (Dec. 16).

"Eucharistic hospitality," means that Catholics would be able to receive Communion at Lutheran worship services, and Lutherans would be able to do the same at a Catholic Mass.

In a speech during his meeting with Younan, Benedict praised progress in Catholic-Lutheran dialogue but did not make any reference to the bishop's Eucharist proposal.

"It is my hope that these ecumenical activities will provide fresh opportunities for Catholics and Lutherans to grow closer in their lives, their witness to the gospel, and their efforts to bring the light of Christ to all dimensions of society" the pope said.

Catholic doctrine forbids such bilateral Communion acceptance. The Second Vatican Council, held from 1962 to 1965, said that Protestants "did not keep the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic mystery."

In 1517, Martin Luther published 95 theses critical of the Roman Catholic Church, setting the Protestant Reformation in motion.

In 1999, the Catholic Church and the LWF signed a joint declaration on the doctrine of justification (how a person is saved), one of the main points of contention between Catholics and Lutherans in the 16th century.

At the meeting with Younan, Benedict called the 1999 declaration "a significant step along the difficult path towards re-establishing full unity among Christians."

Younan is bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, based in Jerusalem.

Comments

[vivificat]

12:56 PM on 01/14/2011

I suggest the Lutherans become Catholic and dump Luther's ideas, and that way they will be able to receive communion in the Catholic Church.

[Vern58]

09:35 AM on 12/22/2010

Never smile at a crocodile
No, you can't get friendly with a crocodile
Don't be taken in by his welcome grin
He's imagining how well you'd fit within his skin

[Jacobite1789]

01:10 AM on 12/21/2010

Christo et Ecclesiae, gaudeamus igitur ! Welcome back Prots!

[Vern58]

09:37 AM on 12/22/2010

Sorry, but it ain't "home to Rome" for all of us.

[Lewsgirl]

11:52 AM on 12/22/2010

No way -- shove it!!

[MIKEinNYC]

08:11 PM on 12/20/2010

Wouldn't it be nice if all of these religious leaders got together for lunch or golf every now and then?

They could tell stories, exchange jokes.

[nephos9]

03:19 PM on 12/20/2010

As someone who was baptised a Lutheran and confirmed a Roman Catholic (growing up in 2 denominations as well as being half Jewish tends to make one very ecumenical :), I can say with some assurance that the differences between the Real Presence and transubstantiation are mainly semantic. "Protestant" is often an unfortunate, catch-all term: Anglicans/Episcopalians and Lutherans were classically called "Catholic Protestants" because, unlike other Protestant denominations, they emerged from Roman Catholicism, NOT as a reaction to it, like Baptists and Presbyterians, who believe in a more symbolic consubstantial Eucharist.

[xdiesp]

03:17 PM on 12/20/2010

I can tell you this about catholics. Because I know catholics, then maybe you're lutheran and might tell me it's the same for you.

They believe in the general christian stuff, you know, the basics. But when you go into detail: what is the trinity, how does god's omniscience and free will match, what's in the communion, is the pope really infallible... they roll their eyes.

Those nitpicking stuff is medieval obsolete. What's important is the moral message, that's the only thing that ever warmed a believer's heart.

[Lewsgirl]

12:17 PM on 12/22/2010

Not the same for Lutherans, xdiesp. Lots of difference in our worship, we value the service of women in the church and we acknowledge all humans as brothers and sisters loved and treasured by God..

All this PLUS we read and discern the bible while not being slavishly bound to allegory. Lutherans are not slaves. And never shall be.

[AZLibDem]

09:39 PM on 12/22/2010

"Men have broad and large chests, and small narrow hips, and more understanding than women, who have but small and narrow breasts, and broad hips, to the end they should remain at home, sit still, keep house, and bear and bring up children."
- Martin Luther

"I confess that mankind has a free will, but it is to milk kine, to build houses, etc., and no further."
- Martin Luther

[Cranmer1549]

01:41 PM on 12/20/2010

It's wishful thinking on the Lutherans part. A common declaration on the Eucharist is never going to happen. That would mean that the Catholic Church would have to admit that it's not the one and only True Church. That ain't going to happen now, 2017 or ever.

[PA Denizen]

01:55 PM on 12/20/2010

The problem would be that the Catholic Church would not change a doctrine that has existed for 2,000 years. And why would a Church of over 1 billion adherents change thier doctrine for a church with less than a 10th that?

[Terrible Towel]

03:39 PM on 12/20/2010

I was raised Catholic but was allowed to take communion at the Epsicopal church....

[Cranmer1549]

04:24 PM on 12/20/2010

That's right. Episcopal churches generally let anyone that is baptized, regardless of denomination, partake in the Eucharist. My 3-year old is allowed to take communion (even the wine) at our Episcopal parish.

[skeptic406]

12:53 PM on 12/20/2010

Just to dance on the head of the pin a while longer and to set the record straight: Lutherans do believe in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the bread and the wine of Holy Communion but we don't try to explain it by playing games with transubstantiation. We admit that it is a mystery, which makes Communion infinitely more meaningful. Our pastors are ordained by bishops who trace their succession all the way back to Peter. We do not re-enact the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

My theory is that most Roman Catholics in America disagree with the pope on one or more issues, such as birth control or cover-up of pedophiles within the church, or something. That single disagreement, whatever it might be, puts them in the same place as the Lutheran. We Lutherans disagree with some of the things the pope does or has done. The difference is that we got kicked out for saying so.

[Carroll27]

02:11 PM on 12/20/2010

You're a Lutheran, right? Then you should know that Lutherans don't throw up their hands and call it a mystery. They subscribe to consubstantiation.

As for "playing games" with transubstantiation, that concept is merely a philosophical way of explaining what Christ meant in the Bread of Life discourses in John.

As for "getting kicked out," I believe Luther left.

[Lewsgirl]

12:27 PM on 12/22/2010

Pastor Martin not only got kicked for not recanting, he nearly suffered a horrible catholic death. Had it not been for important friends he would have just been another man the so-called holy church killed. But God looked after him and people rallied around him. Eveyone should be so lucky.

Carroll27 - Many of us believe the bread and wine are symbols only. We have no problem with those to believe otherwise.

[Hanforder]

04:45 PM on 12/20/2010

Who's "we"? You won't even get concensus on transubstantiation among Lutherans. That's why there's an LCA, ELC, Missouri Synod, Wisconsin Synod, etc. I've seen people quit a church over the use of the word "debts" rather than "trespasses" in the Lord's Prayer (Moral Orel actually addressed this). You should have seen the furor when the LMS slipped the small-c "catholic" back into the Apostle's Creed. Seriously, every few years there is some attempt to coddle favor with the papists. There will never be a reconciliation, because Lutherans generally agree that Catholics have it all wrong, and they're too busy squabbling amongst themselves to arbitrate. I'm just glad Lutherans fuel their arguments with beer rather than guns.

[skeptic406]

05:46 PM on 12/20/2010

Actually, Lutherans laugh at the absurdity of trying to explain transubstantiation - it is not our doctrine. We don't accept it so we don't need consensus. The many different Lutheran denominations in the US were not generally caused by schism but by language, geography and lack of email during the 1700 and 1800's. We immigrated at different times from different countries and had no practical (or impractical) way to join together. In the present time, however, there is now, you might say, a divergence of practice as well as belief.

[Vern58]

09:45 AM on 12/22/2010

Lutherans continue to be one of the most divided of the major Christian denominations. The LCMS will not allow a member of the ELCA to commune at their altars. The Wisconsinites will not let LCMS commune at theirs. So on and so on. This is part of the reason that at the height of my carreer path as a Lutheran Divinity student I chucked it and became a happy and fulfilled Episcopalian, who despises none, and opens it's altars to all.

[Cynth Bage]

11:42 PM on 12/19/2010

At the ELCA church to which I belong, we already accept anyone for communion as long as they are baptized and believe that Jesus is present in the Eucharist. This would just make it official all over the world. I think there are some very conservative Protestants who would bust a gourd if this came to pass--Roman Catholics tend to be very much okay with this sort of thing as far as I can tell.

[Hysterian68]

05:27 AM on 12/20/2010

RC thinking is very fluid on this. Traditionally, the Catholic Church has had closed communion and insists upon communicants believing in transubstantion, but I know priests who don't pay attention to that and would give communion to the Prophet himself if he came forward.

[freespeech2]

12:04 PM on 12/20/2010

It depends on the synod.Some are much more strict, others not so much. ELCA is much less strict than Missouri Synod for example...

[Pastor Annie]

05:11 PM on 12/19/2010

Why no picture of Bishop Younan with this story?

[Vern58]

09:49 AM on 12/22/2010

He is at the right of the pic.

[Jacobite1789]

02:25 PM on 12/19/2010

Why don't they just give up and reintegrate with the mother church then? The Anglican communion has done the same thing, whats the point of being Protestant if you bring back all the smells and bells?

[signgrrl]

07:43 PM on 12/19/2010

this is one of the reasons i stopped going to church, lutheranism is just sliding back into catholicism but the catholics are not moving any closer to lutheranism. i just gave up and left.

[Cynth Bage]

11:46 PM on 12/19/2010

I believe that Martin Luther would have actually been okay with this. He never wanted to create a new church, much less one that was named after him. He simply wanted Rome to get rid of the corrupt practices that he protested against. It was the stubbornness of the Pope and the church hierarchy that caused the rift between one group of Catholics and the other. Luther never created a church; rather, his followers did.

[Hysterian68]

05:28 AM on 12/20/2010

It's what YOU believe that matters. Forget what other Lutherans and Catholics think.

[60256]

02:06 PM on 12/19/2010

Never would I take communion from a church that believes that someone can be equal to God (i.e. the Pope), or that a priest can forgive you of your sins LOL. This is why I don't call myself a Lutheran, I prefer "Follower of Jesus and his teachings". It's called reading the Bible people.

[rabidbadger]

06:23 PM on 12/19/2010

Where did you get the notion that the Pope is equal to God? And priests don't forgive you, theologically they are acting as representatives of God. They forgive you in the name of God, and they do so without fail because that is their responsibility. It's not like the priest listens to a confession and decides whether or not to forgive someone. If you want to criticize the Catholic Church get your facts straight. I'm sure you could find reasons.

[60256]

07:01 PM on 12/19/2010

Uh previous Popes have said that they are equal to God, and it sickens me. Besides, who cares if Priests can forgive you in the name of God? Jesus forgives, a priest can tell me 1000 times that I'm forgiven, but I don't care. I ask for forgiveness from the one who gives it.

[Hysterian68]

05:30 AM on 12/20/2010

I suggest you go back and read some more of it. You need a big refresher course in it. No pope has ever thought or claimed he was "equal to God". I can't believe you learned that in Lutheranism. Priests are agents of forgiveness. Only God forgives.

[invirginia]

08:24 AM on 12/20/2010

Lutheranism does not teach about the Pope.

[MilesToGo]

01:00 PM on 12/19/2010

Lutheran leaders are to be commended. While formal religion as represented by institutionalized religion is replete with human weaknesses and faults, the Sacraments were not of human invention, and certainly should be shared amongst various denominations. It remains to be seen whether or not the Roman Church will get with the program.

[Pastor Annie]

06:27 PM on 12/19/2010

Amen! Jesus ate with sinners, prostitutes, outcasts, tax collectors, even gentiles. Surely he would not draw the line at Lutherans.

[Dbos]

11:14 PM on 12/19/2010

Maybe todays repuglicans would cause him to draw the line

[syntax facit saltum]

06:57 PM on 12/20/2010

I think that attitude might be a little off-putting in an outreach for true communion. I would expect those who seek what is true and right to humble themselves and don't need to show they are the ones in the right.

[Carroll27]

02:14 PM on 12/20/2010

You ARE aware that it was JPII who first reached out to Lutherans and helped forge the concordat of understanding. Right?

[P51MUSTANG]

11:15 AM on 12/19/2010

I'm a Lutheran.

So I sez to this Catholic: "So you believe the wine and the bread become the actual body of Jesus."

"Oh no! We don't just believe it. It does!"

I sez, "Great. That means we should be able to clone him here any day now."

[Jeannette Lacey]

12:16 PM on 12/19/2010

Which synod are you? The reason I'm asking is that I was brought up and took catechism in Missouri Synod, which is one of the most conservative. I do recall the pastor teaching us that the bread and wine "ARE" the body and blood of Jesus (the pastor supported this by saying that Jesus said that himself in the Gospel). What our pastor de-bunked was transubstantiation, which he told us was un-necessary since Jesus had already declared the bread and wine his body. It confused me as a kid - but if some synods still view communion in this respect, it isn't too far away from the Catholic beliefs. I have been away from Lutheranism now for over 25 years – what do they teach about communion today?

[backekuchen]

02:08 PM on 12/19/2010

The body and blood of Christ are present in, with, and under the bread and wine. Lutherans and Episcopalians believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament. The bread and wine do not represent, but are the body and blood. It is a Eucharistic mystery (that which we cannot fully comprehend).

[backekuchen]

02:17 PM on 12/19/2010

I was raised in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. We were taught that Christ was present in the Sacrament of the Altar and that this was close communion. Close communion meant a relationship with God and with those communing.

Today LCMS has changed that to closed communion (WELS says this too). They say now that if you are not a member of Missouri you cannot commune. My daughter and my ex-wife were recently turned away at the altar by the pastor---something they had never experienced before. Both had been raised and confirmed in the LCMS and are members of ELCA congregations.

[Seaniebhoy]

08:06 AM on 12/20/2010

It's symbolic...it the body and blood represent the spirit of Christ.

[invirginia]

08:26 AM on 12/20/2010

Not in Lutheran theology.

[Cranmer1549]

01:40 PM on 12/20/2010

Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans and Anglicans/Episcopalians believe in the Real Presence. It is not symbolic to them.

[EthicalJournalist]

10:36 AM on 12/19/2010

"Catholic doctrine forbids such bilateral Communion acceptance. The Second Vatican Council, held from 1962 to 1965, said that Protestants 'did not keep the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic mystery'."

The biggest mystery is how so many can believe that their religion is the one true religion, realizing how many other people believe theirs is the one true religion. It's ludicrous. Either there's one god who--being the alpha and omega and everything in between--wouldn't care whether one claims Lutheran or Catholic or Episcopalian (the other trinitarian religion left out of this incompletely researched article), or there are a bunch of little gods running around the heavens putting black marks next to the names of those miserable sinners who would cross-religionize and take communion (Gasp!) in a church to which they did not nominally belong. By gad, I can just see those little gods smiting such sinners and churches into oblivion.

Isn't it time to relegate this medieval partisan nonsense to the trash heap?

[Hysterian68]

05:37 AM on 12/20/2010

Just become a Cafeteria Christian like the rest of us. Scripture, the papacy, and "sacred tradition" are all into myth-making and the control of other people's minds. Read and research yourself and come to your own conclusions, but keep forever focused on finding the truth YOURSELF. You'll be just as close to it as the so called expert theologians are.

They can't agree amongst themselves, so why should the rest of us be expected to?

[EthicalJournalist]

06:42 AM on 12/20/2010

Thanks for the very thoughtful reply; much appreciated. Actually, my favorite "real" church has been the Church of England/Episcopal Church because it has enough spectacle to satisfy my love of drama, and a modicum of good sense, virtually no fire and brimstone, and a respectable social conscience. But even that...nah. Couldn't get past the bloody myth. So, years ago, I decided Druid would do it for me, and Druid does. I do still love church music--I simply ignore the words and enjoy the magnificence of the librettos. And once in a while--a very great while--I enter a Church of England/Episcopal High Church for the pageantry.