wfn.org | Barry offers Lutheran response to ŒDeclaration Dominus Iesus'

[wfn@wfn.org]

Contact -- joe.isenhower@lcms.org
October 25, 2000

Dr. A.L. Barry, president of The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod, has issued
a statement in response to the Roman Catholic Church's 36-page "Declaration
Dominus Iesus" ("On the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ
and the Church˛).

In the 36-page document which carries the full authority of an infallible
teaching, the Vatican said  last month that the Roman Catholic Church is the
"only instrument for the salvation of all humanity." It also expresses
"sincere respect" for other religions but attacks "religious relativism
which leads to the belief that one religion is as good as another."

Barry's full statement follows.

-----------------

A Lutheran Response to the Vatican Statement, "Dominus Iesus":

The Vatican's recent assertion that "there exists a single Church of Christ,
which subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the Successor of Peter
and by the bishops in communion with him," came as a surprise to many in
today's ecumenical climate. But this claim is neither new nor surprising.
Rome is merely restating its historic position.

The Christian Church on earth is one, holy, universal and apostolic, not
because it is the Roman Church, or has a pope, but because it is Christ's
church. The church is the assembly of all believers in which the gospel is
taught purely and the sacraments are administered rightly. God the Holy
Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church
on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this
Christian Church, He daily and richly forgives our sins and the sins of all
believers.

The Bishop of Rome is not the head of all Christendom by divine right on the
basis of God's Word. The church cannot be better ruled and preserved than by
living together under one head, Jesus Christ, united in teaching, faith,
sacraments, prayers, and works of love.

We Lutherans continue to reject these claims of the Roman Catholic Church
and the Bishop of Rome as contrary to Sacred Scripture. With many other
Christian churches, we express our deep regret and profound disagreement
with this statement by the Vatican.

----------------