Lutherans, Catholics set aside differences

Lutherans, Catholics set aside differences

VATICAN CITY — Lutherans and Catholics have pledged to celebrate together the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation in 2017, with both sides agreeing to set aside centuries of hostility and prejudice. The Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation released a joint document, “From Conflict to Communion,” in Geneva on June 17 that said there is little purpose in dredging up centuries-old conflicts.

In the document, the two churches focus on a reciprocal admission of guilt and on highlighting the progress made by Lutheran-Catholic dialogue in the past 50 years. The document re-examines the history of the Reformation and the split it created, stressing that Luther “had no intention of establishing a new church but was part of a broad and many-faceted desire for reform” within the church.

It stresses that, thanks to the ecumenical dialogue of recent decades, Lutherans and Catholics “have come to acknowledge that more unites than divides them.”