Lutherans for Rome

In the land of Luther, a top Lutheran clergyman is trying to lead his church back to recognition of the authority of the Roman Catholic Pope and to the restitution of much Catholic liturgy and theology--while yet preserving the Lutheran Church's identity. For this stand. Dr. Hans Christian Asmussen, 63, who now lives in Heidelberg, has lost his big former parish in Kiel. Yet the trend that he espouses is so strong that almost every German city now has churches where Lutherans can go to confession.

The group around Dr. Asmussen is called Die Sammlung (The Gathering), and it was born in his mind during his five-year wartime imprisonment by Hitler for rejecting Hitler's state church proposal. It has grown mostly since 1956, when, after his retirement from Kiel. Asmussen began to concentrate on the movement, which publishes a 16-page newsletter with a circulation (now 1,700) among Protestant churchmen.

Die Sammlung would have Protestantism place more emphasis on saints and sanctity, especially on the Virgin Mary. It would underscore the sacramental character of German Protestant serv ices. "Luther never intended to bereave the church of her mystery," says one Sammlung theologian.

Yet Die Sammlung feels that Protestantism must preserve its own tradition, too. Explains Asmussen: "One reason is that the Catholic Church steadfastly refuses to deal with the results of certain philosophical movements--I mean mainly existentialism--which make very important statements about the position of man and his relationship to himself and God."

Asmussen has a wife and two children, yet he feels that Protestant ministers would be better off unmarried. "In times of crisis, such as we are entering," he says, "a clergyman's loyalty should not have to be divided between duties toward his brethren and care for his family. Marriage is a poor basis for martyrdom."

Theologian Max Lackmann, one of Die Sammlung's most articulate members, summed up the movement for a visitor last week: "We want to say yes to tradition but no to traditionalism, yes to the office of the Pope but no to papism, yes to the right of the church but no to legalism, yes to the praised mother of the Lord but no to Marianism, yes to the spiritual center of Rome but no to centralism and Romanism."

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