Meeting with representatives of the Lutheran Churches of Germany

11 Sep 2019


A meeting took place on 10 September 2019 between the President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU), Cardinal Kurt Koch, and some representatives of the Lutheran Churches in Germany. The delegation was headed by the President of the German National Committee of the Lutheran World Federation, Bishop Frank Otfried July. Guests also included representatives of the Evangelical Church of Augustan Confession of Poland, who had arrived in Rome the previous day for the memorial service for Bishop Bursche, a victim of National Socialism.

The private conversation focused on some questions dealt with in the international ecumenical dialogues and their relationship to Germany. The conclusion of the current and the beginning of the next phase of dialogue between the PCPCU and the Lutheran World Federation was among the discussion points. The relationship of this dialogue to other dialogues, in particular to that between the Pontifical Council and the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE), was also discussed, as was the the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the signing of the  Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification to be held in Stuttgart on 31 October 2019 and Rome on 22 November 2019.