wfn.org | A history of the Joint Declaration

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

Dialogue in Germany, United States and internationally

GENEVA, 23 October 1999 (lwi) - On 17 November 1980 an important meeting
took place: Pope John Paul II was visiting Germany and met with Lutheran
and Reformed church representatives in Mainz. On that occasion,
Landesbishof Eduard Lohse - who was then the chairman of the Council of
the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) - brought up the urgent need for
better cooperation with the Roman Catholic Church with regard to Sunday
worship, eucharistic fellowship and mixed marriages.

A Joint Ecumenical Commission was set up after this meeting. It came
together for the first time on 6 and 7 May 1981. The co-chairmen are
Bishop Lohse of Hanover and the Roman Catholic bishop of Munich,
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Already at this meeting it was clear that
certain fundamental theological issues needed to be resolved before one
could address the pastoral questions more directly.

In the Minutes from this meeting we read that Bishop Lohse expressed the
need for the churches affected to establish in an official, binding way
that the condemnations formulated in the Lutheran confessional writings
of the 16th century  "about the doctrine, form and practice of the Roman
Catholic Church are no longer applicable to today's partner." (Minutes,
cf. Condemnations p. 168). The analogy to the Leuenberg Agreement is
referred to.

Also, according to the Minutes, "Cardinal Ratzinger thought that a
corresponding reexamination of the doctrinal decisions of the Council of
Trent was also necessary. It was important to formulate here [...] that
new realities have come into being, and that the old massive dissensus
to all intents and purposes no longer exists."

Those who have studied the development of the process of the Joint
Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification will have seen that it
started out with a main emphasis on the condemnations issue. But part
way along, one realized that it was necessary to formulate a common
understanding of justification in order to have a clear basis on which
to declare that the condemnations do not apply to the two partners'
teaching at present.

The result of the German finding was presented to the Council of the EKD
and to the German Bishops' Conference (RCC). The Lutheran part of the
response was ready in 1991. The official common response by the German
Protestant churches was only passed late in 1994 and published in 1995
(Okumenische Rundschau 44:99-102). An informal Roman Catholic response
was given, indicating that the study puts the condemnations in a new
perspective. But this response remains unofficial, and has never been
published. The Lutheran - Roman Catholic Dialogue in the United States
was established in 1965. From 1979 until 1983 this dialogue engaged in
the study of justification by faith. The report was published in 1985.
(Justification by Faith: Lutherans and Catholics in Dialogue VII,
Minneapolis 1985).

Whereas the main focus of the German study as already mentioned had been
the condemnations as such, the main focus of the American study on
justification was the formulation of an agreed understanding. In a
concluding "Common Statement" the members of the dialogue declared that
they shared "the affirmation that the entire hope of justification and
salvation rests on Christ Jesus and on the gospel whereby the good news
of God's merciful action in Christ is made known."

In 1993 a U.S. Lutheran - Roman Catholic Joint Coordinating Commitee was
created to clarify whether a joint declaration was feasible regarding
the condemnations on justification. The U.S. National Committee of the
LWF sent a letter soon after to the LWF General Secretary asking the
advice of the LWF on various ecumenical proposals before the ELCA,
including the possibility of declaring the Lutheran condemnations on
justification inapplicable to the Roman Catholic Church today. (Ibid.).
Such a declaration was foreseen to take place in the USA possibly in
1997.

The international Lutheran - Roman Catholic dialogue began its work in
1967. In 1972 this dialogue issued its report on "The Gospel and the
Church" (the so-called "Malta Report").  Already at this first stage of
the international dialogue we can read: "Today [...] a far-reaching
consensus is developing in the interpretation of justification. (...)"

After the German study on the condemnations was published, the LWF
Executive Committee decided at its 1986 meeting in Munich to arrange for
a translation of the study into English and arrange a consultation to
discuss a process for the LWF.

The process proposed was to develop a response from the LWF member
churches to the German condemnations study together with the German
Lutheran response. Such a process was affirmed by the1987 meeting by the
LWF Executive Committee in Vikborg, Denmark. (Ibid.).

In the 1991 meeting of the LWF Council it was decided to seek the
establishment of regional groups in the Nordic countries and in the USA
to prepare responses to the German study. The Nordic group was
established. It delivered its report in 1997.

^From the USA a different approach was proposed, as outlined above. It
led to the decision of the 1993 LWF Council meeting in Kristiansand,
Norway, to expand the scope of a joint American statement on the
doctrine of justification to include the whole Lutheran Communion.
(Ibid. p. 51). The deadline chosen in the USA was kept, since that would
be the 450th anniversary of the Decree on Justification by the Council
of Trent and also the 50th anniversary  assembly of the LWF.

The development of the Joint Declaration was not to be lodged in the
official Lutheran - Roman Catholic Joint Commission, but in specially
appointed task forces.
The initial draft of the Joint Declaration was prepared in March 1994 by
a task force of Lutheran and Roman Catholic theologians meeting in
Geneva. This draft states: "Therefore, we are in a position to declare
that mutual doctrinal condemnations regarding the doctrine of
justification no longer apply to the partner today."

The draft was sent to various experts on both sides and was also
examined by the Standing Committee on Ecumenical Affairs in June that
year. On the basis of the reactions received a second draft was prepared
in September 1994 which was approved for submission to the churches by
the Joint Staff Meeting of the Lutheran World Federation and the
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU).

The second draft of the Joint Declaration was sent to the LWF member
churches on 30 January 1995. Responses were requested early in 1996.
This round was expected to have a restricted audience because of the
parallel assessment process taking place in the Roman Catholic Church.
This, however, created some reactions on the Lutheran side as it was
regarded as a hindrance to the full and open participation by the member
churches. The material, together with responses in the Roman Catholic
Church, formed the basis for a new draft prepared in June 1996.

At this point a dilemma presented itself on the Lutheran side. On the
one hand it seemed clear that more time was needed for further revision
of the document. On the other hand there were those who felt that the
1997 deadline ought not to be missed.

The Standing Committee on Ecumenical Affairs in June 1996 concluded that
more time was needed if the process was to succeed on the Lutheran side.
It decided that further revision should take place and that the
Executive Committee in February 1997 should send the final text to the
member churches for response. The deadline was set to 1 May 1998.

On the basis of the responses of the LWF member churches, the LWF
Council affirmed the Joint Declaration in a unanimous resolution on 16
June 1998. And on 25 June 1998 the response was received from the Roman
Catholic Church. While this response also affirmed the Joint Declaration
with regard to a consensus on basic truths regarding justification, it
expressed at the same time that further clarification was needed before
it could be stated in a general way that the condemnations from the time
of the Reformation do not apply to the teaching presented in the Joint
Declaration.

It soon became clear that if the Joint Declaration were to be confirmed
jointly and officially  by the two partners, a short document needed to
be formulated making it clear that the two parties together accepted the
concluding paragraphs 40 and 41 of Joint Declaration without
reservations. The LWF was assured, in a letter from Edward Idris
Cardinal Cassidy, President of the PCPCU on 30 July 1998 that the Roman
Catholic Church was ready to confirm the Joint Declaration in this way.

The short document, called the Official Common Statement, which was
presented at a joint press conference on 11 June this year by Cardinal
Cassidy and the LWF General Secretary Dr. Ishmael Noko, will be signed
on 31 October. It is the means by which the Joint Declaration is
confirmed jointly. The Annex to this statement clarifies more
specifically certain points of the consensus reached, also making it
clear how paragraph 41 of the Joint Declaration can be jointly
confirmed.

A part of the process leading to the texts of the Official Common
Statement and its Annex was initiated by the late Lutheran bishop
Johannes Hanselmann together with Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. Bishop
Johannes Hanselmann, who died on 2 October, will be remembered for his
strong dedication to the Joint Declaration throughout the process.

(This article was contributed by Rev. Sven Oppegaard, the LWF Assistant
General Secretary for Ecumenical Affairs.)

(The LWF is a global communion of 128 member churches in 70 countries
representing 58 million of the world's 61.5 million Lutherans. Its
highest decision making body is the Assembly, held every six or seven
years. Between Assemblies, the LWF is governed by a 49-member Council
which meets annually, and its Executive Committee. The LWF secretariat
is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

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Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/