wfn.org | No reason for disappointment or resignation

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

Comments of Bishop Karl Lehmann and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

GENEVA, 9 July 1998 (lwi) - Chairperson of the German Catholic Bishops'
Conference, Bishop Karl Lehmann, has called the Vatican's response to the
"Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification" a "decisive step
toward comprehensive church unity." "The core of the Roman Catholic
response," Lehmann underlined June 25: "corresponds to the Lutheran
statement that a consensus has been reached on basic truths of the doctrine
on justification. It is an important step," he continued, "that both
partners officially affirm this substantial agreement which has been in
preparation for decades through many theological studies. This is a long
hoped for, and now binding step."

Although the response of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian
Unity in Rome mentions the limits of the consensus reached - "in a similar
way to the Lutheran World Federation" - there is no serious reason for
disappointment and resignation. "All that in over 450 years has drifted
apart in theological, spiritual, cultural and often also political terms,
despite all the dedication, needs time to mature toward a responsible
growing together," Lehmann stressed. For this reason, it is necessary to
"proceed resolutely" to the clarifications, as also specified by the LWF,
through further ecumenical conversations "and bring them to a credible end
through a spiritual process." Looking confidently toward the future Lehmann
said, "If the bonds of unity are in this way more tightly bound together,
eucharistic community some day will become a reality at the end of a
probably even longer path."

Cardinal Ratzinger welcomes qualified "consensus on basic truths"

Even before the Roman Catholic response to the "Joint Declaration on the
Doctrine of Justification" was published, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
commended the adoption of the Joint Declaration by the LWF Council on June
16 as a "historically moving step".

In conversations with pastors of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland in
Rome, June 18, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, according to the Roman Catholic news agency (KNA-OKI), spoke of the
Joint Declaration as an "event of the century" referring to its theological
substance as basically "positive". The Roman Catholic side, he said,
affirms and welcomes the qualified consensus reached on basic truths.

According to the KNA-OKI, Ratzinger "left no doubt that the moment has come
for an official and public signing". The president of the Pontifical
Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Edward Cassidy, has been
mandated by the Vatican to sign the document on the pope's behalf.
Ratzinger said he hopes this still would happen this fall.

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Lutheran World Information
Editorial Assistant: Janet Bond-Nash
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