Catholic News Service
Martin Luther’s Reformation may be the only ongoing 500-year-old argument on earth.
The theological split inevitably looks to be permanent. Yet, reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants has taken place, in small steps, beginning in the years after World War II, accelerating with the Second Vatican Council, and culminating with 1999’s Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, which asserted “a common understanding of our justification by God’s grace through faith in Christ.”
“Certainly Catholics and Protestants have made major progress in agreement on the nature of justification by faith,” says Michael Root, a professor of systematic theology at The Catholic University of America, who was a member of the drafting team for the 1999 agreement. “It wasn’t until 1948 that Catholics and Protestants were officially allowed to pray together.”
“If we only look at the question of justification, then we’ve made major strides. There’s also continuing ecumenical dialogue on the presence of Christ in the Eucharist and the nature of baptism. So there’s significant progress.”
But Root thinks it’s also being derailed by conflicting beliefs over some moral issues. “There’s been no way to move forward on those, but you can’t predict when things can change.”
He remembered the last-minute intervention of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) on the joint declaration. “Particularly at the last minute, when everything look stuck, he got it unstuck.”
Several issues remain in the way of creating a common church life. “The matter of the sacraments remains unresolved,” Root observes. “It’s hard to move our communion closer together in the actual day-to-day practice.”
Msgr. John Radano, who teaches theology at Immaculate Conception Seminary at Seton Hall University and wrote a book exploring the centuries-long history of the relationship between Lutherans and Catholics in 2009, remains an optimist.
“I think part of the tragedy of the Reformation was because we were separated and couldn’t really talk about that very much,” he says. “I think we have entered into a new era.”
One area of agreement he’s noticed: “A divine inspiration is made up of human beings. Because human beings are sinners, there’s a continual need for reformation in the church. We can say that as Catholics.”
He also points to last year’s joint prayer service between Pope Francis and Bishop Munib Younan, president of the Lutheran World Federation: “A very, very important development. It shows that the dialogue of the last 50 years, since Vatican II, has been productive. Now we have to go from there.”
(Jensen is a freelance writer.)
