Encouraging commemorations in all dioceses of the world, the Pontifical Council notes the theme is drawn from the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
In 2017, it says, “Lutheran and Catholic Christians will for the first time commemorate together the beginning of the Reformation.”
The text also states that “Catholics are now able to hear Luther’s challenge for the Church of today, recognizing him as a ‘witness to the gospel.’”
The
announcement follows on the heels of Pope Francis’ controversial trip
to Lund, Sweden, where he joined in the launch of the 500th year
anniversary of the most devastating split in Christianity in its
history.
The Lutheran Church of Sweden to which Pope Francis went for
the celebration accepts contraception, abortion, homosexuality, and
female clergy, all of which are strictly and unalterably forbidden in
the Catholic Church.
Nevertheless,
the Vatican is pushing the joint celebration of the Reformation
focusing on the common element of “Jesus Christ and his work of
reconciliation as the center of Christian faith.”
The
theme of the week of Christian unity has Vatican watchers wondering if
the Pope may announce that in certain limited cases intercommunion for
Protestants might be possible.
The Pope suggested such previously in an
informal talk at a Lutheran parish in Rome where in November 2015 he
told a Lutheran woman asking about receiving Communion with her Catholic
husband to “go forward” guided by individual conscience.
That suspicion was given momentum last month when Cardinal Walter Kasper, one of the Pope’s closest advisors, said he hoped that the Pope’s “next declaration opens the way for shared Eucharistic communion in special cases.”
Eucharistic
intercommunion is the main desire for Lutheran and Catholic leaders
involved in the Papal participation in the Lutheran commemoration.
Swedish Professor Dr. Clemens Cavallin in an essay on “Sweden and the 500-year reformation anamnesis”
notes that the Church of Sweden webpage states explicitly about the
pope’s visit: “What we foremost wish is that the common celebration of
the Eucharist will be officially possible. This is especially important
for families where members belong to different denominations.”
The
severity of the change, if implemented, was stressed by Monsignor
Nicola Bux, a former consulter to the Vatican’s Congregation for the
Doctrine of Faith. If the Church were to change its rules on shared
Eucharistic Communion, it would “go against Revelation and the
Magisterium,” leading Christians to “commit blasphemy and sacrilege,”
Bux told Ed Pentin of the National Catholic Register.
Regarding
the Eucharist, Lutherans have a fundamentally different faith from
Catholics, who believe that during the consecration at Mass the bread
used becomes the body and blood of Jesus Christ while still looking like
bread. Lutherans believe in a fleeting presence – that while Christ is
present in the bread during the service, it is just normal bread again
outside the service.
The
approach of Pope Francis to a joint commemoration of the Reformation is
partially based on a “naïve” understanding of the theological dialogue
between Lutherans and Catholics, according to former Anglican, now Catholic priest Fr. Dwight Longenecker.
Fr. Longenecker points to this statement
of Pope Francis about Martin Luther as problematic: “Today, Lutherans
and Catholics, Protestants, all of us agree on the doctrine of
justification. On this point, which is very important, he did not err.”
Pope Francis draws his enthusiasm for this agreement on a Joint Declaration between Catholics and Lutherans on the Doctrine of Justification.
However, Fr. Longenecker points out that the Vatican issued a detailed official clarification
document wherein Pope Benedict (while still serving as Cardinal Prefect
of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith) pointed out that there
was not a consensus between Catholics and Lutherans on the understanding
of justification.
“The level of agreement is high, but it does not yet
allow us to affirm that all the differences separating Catholics and
Lutherans in the doctrine concerning justification are simply a question
of emphasis or language,” said the document. “Some of these differences
concern aspects of substance and are therefore not all mutually
compatible.”