I
n late October 1958, Angelo Roncalli, a cleric who had spent his entire life in diplomacy and was not known for his theological learning, was elected pope of the Roman Catholic Church. He took the name John XXIII. Within three short months of his election, this pope announced that he was calling a council of the Roman Catholic Church, a gathering of all of its bishops. Probably most Lutherans around the world took
little interest in these two events. With extremely few exceptions, Lutherans since the Reformation in the 16th century looked upon the Roman Catholic Church with suspicion, if not hostility. Relations between Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches were virtually nonexis- tent in the mid-20th century. Over four centuries polemic (a contentious argument to establish the truth of a spe- cific belief and the falsity of the contrary belief) raged between Lutherans and Roman Catholics, who saw each other as betrayers of the Christian faith.
Lutherans By William G. Rusch 14 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
and the Second Vatican Council
Event 50 years ago opened road toward greater unity with Roman Catholics
Rusch, an ELCA pastor, is the former executive director of the ELCA Office for Ecumenical Affairs and is now an adjunct professor of Lutheran studies at Yale Divinity School, New Haven, Conn.
The council that Pope John XXIII convened, known as the Second Vatican Council, held its opening session in October 1962. Thus in 2012 Roman Catholics and others, including Lutherans, are noting its 50th anniversary. This is appropriate because with the hindsight of these five decades, there is now an increasing awareness that the Second Vatican Council was an unprecedented event for all the churches in the 20th century, including Lutheran. The uniqueness of the Second Vatican Council can be observed in part by a comparison with the First Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church, which ended in 1870. When Pope Pius IX called the first council, he urged Protestants and other non-Catholics to use this as an occasion to repent of their errors and return to the Roman Catholic Church. Needless to say, there were no Lutherans at that council.
When Pope John XXIII convoked the Second Vatican Council, he had established within the Vatican structures a secretariat, an office, for promoting Christian unity and invited other Christian communions to send official observers to the council. It is difficult in 2012 to grasp the full magnitude of this change. The pope was enabling the Roman Catholic Church to make a decisive break with the denunciations and distrust of a bitter past and inviting other Christians to make a similar break and join in a new beginning of relations among the churches. John XXIII did not live beyond the council’s first ses- sion. It fell to his successor, Pope Paul VI, to express his accomplishment in eloquent and moving words. Paul VI addressed the observers at the opening of the second session as “beloved brothers in Jesus Christ.” He publicly asked pardon from God and other Christians for any blame incurred by Rome in the divisions of the
ST. PETERS DURING 2ND VATICAN COUNCIL; DAVID LEES/GETTY IMAGES
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52