Area church leader hails Catholic-Lutheran document
On the 499th anniversary of Martin Luther’s posting of 95 Theses on a German church door, Pope Francis joined the president of the Lutheran World Federation, Bishop Munib Younan, in a Swedish cathedral to sign a series of five imperatives aimed at taking Catholics and Lutherans “from conflict to communion.”
“This was a historical day, a great day,” said the Rev. Donald J. McCoid, a former Pittsburgh Lutheran bishop heavily involved in ecumenical efforts. “It was a great day not just for Lutherans but for Catholics.”
Luther’s action triggered a Reformation that split Western Europe between Catholics and Protestants. The Pope’s trip to Sweden was part of his effort to heal that split.
“The pope has been a face of conscience, a face of love, and a person who really has been very favorable to moving unity forward,” said McCoid, bishop emeritus of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. “It’s a commitment to work together, to serve together (in such matters as charity) and to continue to work toward unity in faith.”
The pope’s visit to Sweden to kickstart a year-long observance of the 500th anniversary of Luther’s action on Oct. 31, 1517, raised eyebrows. But the Vatican and Lutheran church both insisted the event was no celebration of Luther’s revolt. As did Catholic and Lutheran officials in the Pittsburgh area, all stressed that the observance is a solemn commemoration, seeking forgiveness for the Catholic-Lutheran schism and rejoicing that relations have improved in the last half-century.
“The Roman Catholic dioceses of Pittsburgh and Greensburg, the Metropolitan Archeparchy of Pittsburgh (Byzantine Rite) and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are coming together to plan a series of events in 2017 to mark the 500th anniversary of this difficult event in Christian history,” said Jerry Zufelt, spokesman for the Diocese of Greensburg. “Local events will focus on repentance, thanksgiving and hope for future unity in light of the progress made in joint, doctrinal agreements over the past 50 years.”
While the document signed Monday is called “From Conflict to Communion,” it is not a declaration of intercommunion between the two churches. According to Catholic News Service, the Catholic Church insists that regular sharing of the Eucharist or Holy Communion will be possible only when divided Christians have attained full unity.
However, in a homily during the prayer service, the Rev. Martin Junge, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, expressed his hope that sharing the bread and wine believed to be the body and blood of Jesus could come soon.
McCoid, who met with Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI as well as Francis, recalled the 1999 Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification between the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation, an umbrella organization for the ELCA and other Lutheran denominations around the world.
“It was the first agreement with any church outside of the Catholic Church,” McCoid recalled. It read in part, “In faith we together hold the conviction that justification is the work of the triune God. The Father sent his Son into the world to save sinners.”
Since ending a 20-year tenure leading ELCA parishes in 10 counties around Pittsburgh, McCoid has been his denomination’s executive for ecumenical and inter-religious relations, and an assistant to the Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, the ELCA’s presiding bishop.
Eaton, a former Cleveland-based ELCA bishop elevated to denominational leadership at a churchwide assembly in Pittsburgh in 2013, was among those in attendance at Monday’s ceremony in the cathedral in Lund, Sweden.
There Francis quoted Luther and praised him for having restored the centrality of Scripture to the church.
“The spiritual experience of Martin Luther challenges us to remember that apart from God, we can do nothing,” the pope said.
“It really used the basis of Scripture (in John 15 about Jesus describing his relationship to the Church as being) the vine and the branches and how we are united together,” McCoid said. “The pope’s words were hopeful. They were certainly full of grace.”
“We have the opportunity to mend a critical moment of our history by moving beyond the controversies and disagreements that have often prevented us from understanding one another,” Francis went on. “We too must look with love and honesty at our past, recognizing error and seeking forgiveness, for God alone is our judge.”
As youngsters brought lit candles to the front of the thousand-year-old cathedral, each commitment was read during an ecumenical prayer service.
“The signing ceremony happened in the service,” McCoid said. “They brought a table out and they both sat down and signed the agreement.”
The first imperative in the five-part agreement read, “Catholics and Lutherans should always begin from the perspective of unity and not from the point of view of division in order to strengthen what is held in common even though the differences are more easily seen and experienced.”
The second imperative was a commitment that “Lutherans and Catholics must let themselves continuously be transformed by the encounter with the other and by the mutual witness of faith.”
The third said, “Catholics and Lutherans should again commit themselves to seek visible unity, to elaborate together what this means in concrete steps, and to strive repeatedly toward this goal.”
The fourth read, “Lutherans and Catholics should jointly rediscover the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ for our time,” while the fifth stated, “Catholics and Lutherans should witness together to the mercy of God in proclamation and service to the world.”
According to Catholic News Service, the cathedral in Lund was built as a Catholic church in the 11th Century. It became a Lutheran church early in the 16th Century, when King Gustav I broke with Rome in a dispute over the appointment of bishops.
After the Lund event, the Vatican and Lutheran delegations rode together on a bus to attend an event highlighting both churches’ peace-making and humanitarian efforts. Testimony from refugees and the Catholic bishop of besieged Aleppo, Syria, topped the list of speakers.
Francis continued his visit on Tuesday with a Mass in the Malmo sports stadium, added in at the last minute after Sweden’s tiny Catholic community balked that Francis was ignoring them and coming only for the Protestant commemoration.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.