What Luther Put Asunder

A group of 25 eminent U.S. Lutheran and Roman Catholic theologians last week issued a set of statements that marked a major step toward joining together what Luther put asunder just 453 years ago. The scholars urged that the Lutheran and Catholic churches recognize each other's authenticity and the validity of each other's Communion (Eucharist). The statement could well pave the way for widespread pulpit sharing and eventually even interCommunion between Lutherans and Catholics.

The theologians have been talking over areas of mutual agreement and disagreement since 1965, when the U.S. branch of the Lutheran World Federation and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops first initiated the dialogue. One of the central difficulties was a difference of opinion over the nature of the Eucharistic ministry. The language of the documents issued last week showed solid agreement on the matter, although an ultimate settlement must await ratification by both churches.

Different Understanding. "The Lutheran communities with which we have been in dialogue," wrote the Catholic participants, "are truly Christian churches, possessing the elements of holiness and truth that mark them as organs of grace and salvation . . . We have found serious defects in the arguments customarily used against the validity of the Eucharistic ministry of the Lutheran churches. Accordingly we ask . . . that the Roman Catholic Church recognize the validity of the Lutheran ministry and the presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharistic celebrations of the Lutheran churches."

Up to now, Roman Catholics have only recognized the validity of their own "holy orders," and those of the Eastern Orthodox churches, on the grounds that only in the Roman and Eastern traditions has the ministry been handed down through unbroken "apostolic succession." The recognition of a valid Lutheran ministry would apparently be based on a different understanding of apostolic succession, one which sees it as a continuity of doctrine and practice in conformity with the Gospel.

Lutheran participants urged their own churches to acknowledge Roman Catholic validity. Member churches, they suggested, should "declare formally" that Catholic clergy "are engaged in a valid ministry of the Gospel" and that "the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ are truly present in their celebrations of the sacrament of the altar."

The Catholics said that "they would rejoice" if Lutherans could accept the Catholic concept of an episcopacy "in apostolic succession," as a sign of church unity, but realistically added that "episcopacy is not yet seen in that light." For their part, the Lutherans admitted a possibility "that the papacy might have a symbolic or functional value" in the church so long as the Pope's primacy is seen as a human, rather than a divine right.

For all the mutual understanding, individual ministers and priests were warned to wait for the recommendations to be acted on by their churches and resist the temptation to take "private action." One sort of action feared was taken only a month before the announcement, in Chicago, when a Lutheran pastor and two Catholic priests celebrated a Communion service together. Ecumenical officers of both churches labeled the service irregular.

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