Joint Lutheran-Catholic ecumenical event announced for fall 2016

January 19, 2015

The Lutheran World Federation and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity have announced that they will hold a joint ecumenical event in fall 2016 “to express the joint gifts received through dialogue” and to “highlight the solid ecumenical developments between Catholics and Lutherans.”

“By concentrating together on the centrality of the question of God and on a Christocentric approach, Lutherans and Catholics will have the possibility of an ecumenical commemoration of the Reformation, not simply in a pragmatic way, but in the deep sense of faith in the crucified and resurrected Christ, whom Luther has brought to light again,” said Cardinal Cardinal Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

Quoting Pope Francis, Cardinal Koch said that “for the first time, Lutherans and Catholics will have the opportunity to share one ecumenical commemoration throughout the world, not in the form of a triumphalistic celebration, but as the profession of our common faith in the Triune God.”

 

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Further information:

• Joint Lutheran World Federation-Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity Press Release: Lutherans and Catholics Plan Joint Ecumenical Commemoration in 2016 (Holy See Press Office)