Lutheran-Catholic dialogue

Just as in 1999 a joint Declaration on the doctrine of justification was signed, there is now an urgent need for a common document on other great themes of such relevance to ecumenism and the life of the Church as are ministry and the Eucharist. I addressed the second issue in the Catholic-Lutheran dialogue on another occasion. In the pages that follow, we see the situation of theological dialogue around the interwoven questions of justification, ministry and the Eucharist, contained in some articles that have recently appeared, also as an echo of the commemoration of the 500 years since the beginning of the Lutheran reform in 1517. We will thus appreciate the points of convergence and still divergence, the progress made and the questions that remain. We will do this on three levels: the doctrine on these three points as set forth by Luther and the Catholic Church and the status of these issues in the doctrinal dialogues. The result will be a rich picture, full of light and shadows, in any case always hopeful. I hope that this threefold perspective will serve to shed some light on such an exciting picture.