The secretary general of Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has warned
the Vatican that any moves to bring Lutheran communities into the
Catholic Church along the lines of an ordinariate, as was set up in 2011
for former Anglicans, would have "deep ecumenical repercussions" for
Catholic-Lutheran relations.
The Revd Martin Junge said such a move would raise "theological
questions" and ecumenical dangers and "send a wrong signal" to
ecumenically-minded Lutheran Churches.
He made his comments in an 18 January statement after Archbishop
Gerhard Müller, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
raised the possibility of a so-called "Lutheran ordinariate" similar to
that for Anglicans at an 11 January book presentation in Rome.