Posted on 12/30/2010 10:43:45 AM PST by marshmallow
The Lutheran World Federation invited recently Pope Benedict XVI to be involved in preparations for the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
LWF president Bishop Munib Younan, along with a seven-member delegation, invited Benedict during their papal audience in the Vatican. Younan said he hoped that by 2017, the LWF anniversary year, they can issue a joint statement on the doctrine of Holy Communion, The Christian Century reported.
According to The Christian Century, prior to the meeting Younan said, “Our intention is to arrive at 2017 with a common Roman Catholic-Lutheran declaration on Eucharistic hospitality.”
Younan said under such an agreement, Lutherans would be able to receive communion at a Catholic mass, and Catholics would also be able to receive communion at Lutheran services, The Christian Century said.
During the papal audience Younan invited Benedict “to work together with us in preparing this anniversary, so that in 2017 we are closer to sharing in the Bread of Life than we are today,” Vatican Radio reported.
Younan said to the pope, “[W]e intend our anniversary to be ecumenically accountable: to recognise both damaging aspects of the Reformation and ecumenical progress since the last major Reformation anniversary. But we cannot achieve this ecumenical accountability on our own, without your help,” Christian Today reported.
According to Vatican Radio, Benedict lauded the “many significant fruits” that were borne through Catholic-Lutheran talks, which have been ongoing for decades. Benedict said, “Catholics and Lutherans are called to reflect anew on where our journey towards unity has led us and to implore the Lord’s guidance and help for the future.
(Excerpt) Read more at theundergroundsite.com ...
I'm thinking that the Rev. Younan's ecumenical vision may be somewhat different from that of Benedict XVI....... :-)
The “Lutheran” churches which are members of the Lutheran World Federation have, by and large, abandoned any semblance of adherence to the Lutheran confessions.
I’m thinking that LWF president Bishop Munib Younan should be given a drug test.
Very true. I just wish they would drop the “Lutheran” name.
I was wondering what “Eucharistic hospitality” was when I read the intercommunion nonsense. I suggest, however, that your bishops have only themselves to blame for the fantastical thinking of the Lutheran prelate since the Latin Rite bishops have for years attempted to use the Eucharist as a means to ecclesial unity with us Orthodox rather than as an expression of it after reunion is attained.
In any event, I trust that the Lutheran leader’s suggestion was gently and politely declined.
That noted, putting aside old divisions would lead to a united Christian front composed of the Roman Catholic church and other churches as independent allies - a Christian answer to the "coalition of the willing."
Orthodox Lutheran churches refuse to be in communion with members of the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church should do the same.
The “breaking bread with the Anglicans” part has be scratching my head, since the Catholic church does not recognize Anglican orders. You’re saying that the Pope did what...? Link?
And Christ
Never mind what the back of the missal says.
Especially never mind what the back of the missal says! You know, I wonder if the Europeans or the Canadians have that in their paperback missals?
I think that Lutherans will follow the Anglicans back to the Catholic Church.
Good question. One I have never thought about.
I do know that there is a prayer pasted over that statement in the Nebraska Dioceses. Used to make my mother in law laugh.
Some will, to escape the rank heresy in their own synods. Which will cause problems in the Catholic church as they will bring the same heresies (or its seeds) with them.
Even if tomorrow the Lutherans were to adopt the Catholic teaching on the Eucharist there would still be the question of the validity of the Lutheran Eucharist because of the lack of valid apostolic succession among their bishops. I know that the Scandinavian Lutheran bishops are descendant of their Catholic predecessors but is this true of the Germans? But even with the Scandinavians, have they maintain a true succession in their ordination rites?
Excerpts from greeting speeches by pope and queen in Edinburgh.
By my reading: "no", "no" and "probably."
OK — (whew) — I thought you meant they gave each other Communion, or something like that.
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