http://www.usccb.org/news/2015/15-147.cfm


Catholics And Lutherans Release ‘Declaration On The Way’ To Full Unity
 
October 30, 2015
 WASHINGTON—Drawing on 50 years of national and international dialogue, Lutherans and Catholics together have issued the "Declaration on the Way: Church, Ministry and Eucharist," a unique ecuмenical docuмent that marks a pathway toward greater visible unity between Catholics and Lutherans. The October 30 release of the docuмent comes on the eve of the anniversary of Martin Luther's posting the 95 Theses, which sparked the Protestant Reformation.

"Pope Francis in his recent visit to the United States emphasized again and again the need for and importance of dialogue. This Declaration on the Way represents in concrete form an opportunity for Lutherans and Catholics to join together now in a unifying manner on a way finally to full communion," said Bishop Denis J. Madden, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Catholic co-chair of the task force creating the declaration.

"Five hundred years ago wars were fought over the very issues about which Lutherans and Roman Catholics have now achieved consensus," said ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton. "Church, ministry and Eucharist have been areas of disagreement and even separation between our two churches, and we still have work to do both theologically and pastorally as we examine the questions. The declaration is so exciting because it shows us 32 important points where already we can say there are not church-dividing issues between us, and it gives us both hope and direction for the future," she said.

At the heart of the docuмent are 32 "Statements of Agreement" where Lutherans and Catholics already have points of convergence on topics about church, ministry and Eucharist. These agreements signal that Catholics and Lutherans are indeed 'on the way' to full, visible unity. As 2017 approaces, the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, this witness to growing unity gives a powerful message to a world where conflict and division often seem to drown out more positive messages of hope and reconciliation The docuмent also indicates differences still remaining between Lutherans and Catholics and indicates possible ways forward.

In October both the ELCA Conference of Bishops—an advisory body of the church—and the Committee on Ecuмenical and Interreligious Affairs of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) received and unanimously affirmed the 32 Agreements. ELCA bishops requested that the ELCA Church Council accept them and forward the entire docuмent to the 2016 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, the denomination's highest legislative body.

The docuмent seeks reception of the Statement of Agreements from The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU). The LWF is a global communion of 145 churches in 98 countries worldwide. The ELCA is the communion's only member church from the United States.

The conclusion invites the PCPCU and the LWF to create a process and timetable for addressing the remaining issues. It also suggests that the expansion of opportunities for Lutherans and Catholics to receive Holy Communion together would be a sign of the agreements already reached. The Declaration also seeks a commitment to deeper connection at the local level for Catholics and Lutherans.

In December 2011, Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the PCPCU, proposed a declaration to seal in agreements in the areas of the church, ministry and the Eucharist. The ELCA and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops responded to the Cardinal's proposal by identifying Catholic and Lutheran scholars and leaders to produce the declaration, drawing principally on the statements of international dialogue commissions sponsored by the LWF and the PCPCU and a range of regional dialogues, including those in the United States.

A significant outcome of the Lutheran-Catholic dialogue in the United States and internationally is the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ), signed in 1999 in Augsburg, Germany. With the JDDJ, the LWF and the Catholic Church agreed to a common understanding of the doctrine of justification and declared that certain 16th century condemnations of each other no longer apply.
 
The text of the Declaration on the Way and more information are available online: http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/ecuмenical-and-interreligious/ecuмenical/lutheran/declaration-on-the-way.cfm
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Some says Catholics And Lutherans are the same thing. I would like them to explain why my Catholic faith bothers my Lutheran brother so much.

Making way for Luther to be canonized in 2017.

 

These cretins are just laying the groundwork for the inevitable formal recognition in 2017 that they are one "church." They're gonna party like it's 1517!

The One World Church is an old Vatican II objective. The problem is that where, say, the Tradition minded priestly society FSSP has an average age of 37, orders like the Jesuit have an age average in the 70s. Pope Francis might count as a young Jesuit a few years ago. Modernism is literally dying, so expect the intensity of the attacks on the Faith to increase.

How does this work? :confused1: Didn't Newchurch believe the Lutherans' sacraments were invalid?

link

U.S. ‘Bishops’ ask Vatican for joint-reception of ‘Holy Communion’ with Lutherans

The operative word you used, ascent, is "Didn't".  Yes.  At one time, even Newchurch believed the Lutheran's sacraments were invalid.  But this was then.  This is now.  To the Conciliar church, the terms "valid" and "invalid" are mere constructs; they are simply abstract ideas that separate and exclude.

Years ago, when I was still Novus Ordo, the priest at my parish changed the words of Consecration (of the New Mass) in an attempt to make the service more inclusive.  I was shocked.  My wife and I sat back in our pew and looked at each other and she asked me if she actually heard what she thought she heard.  I knew we could not stay there and I stood up and told the children that we had to leave and we walked out while everyone was reciting the "mystery of faith".  

I was furious.  I was hurt.  I could not speak to the priest at all for I knew I would do something rash.  I wrote to the archbishop and told him exactly what happened.  I also asked him if the Mass was valid.  I wrote back.  I received a hand-written note from him saying that he was sorry I had a bad experience at Father's Mass and that he would talk to him about it.  He did not address validity or invalidity.  Actually, he didn't even admit that, if what I said happened was accurate, there even was a problem.  He only addressed my feelings about what transpired.

The day I received that letter was the last day I had anything to do with the Novus Ordo or the archdiocese.  It was the day I finally understood that, in the Newchurch, sacraments are not "valid" or "invalid", they are merely what "unites" us; what makes us all part of the same church.  

Yes.  At one time, back in the 1960s and probably into the 1980s, the Newchurch thought that Lutheran sacraments were invalid.  But, for them, that attitude is passé.  Remember what Bergoglio recently said:  God has included all in salvation, except for the excluders!  The docuмent approved by the American bishops declares:

Eucharistic Presence
(30) Lutherans and Catholics agree that in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, Jesus Christ himself is present: He is present truly, substantially, as a person, and he is present in his entirety, as Son of God and a human being.  (Emphasis added)

If everyone agrees, how can the exclude?  Consider the celebrations between Lutherans and the Conciliar sect on Reformation Day in 2017.  I foresee joint concelebrations of the "sacrament of the Lord's Supper" in parishes, cathedrals, and basilicas throughout the world.  It really will be a day of "trick or treat".