Lutheran warning over ordinariate

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.