Leo XIV praises foundational Lutheran document: The Augsburg Confession by Melanchthon.
Today, Leo XIV received a delegation of the Lutheran World Federation. He said: “Renewed communion in the apostolic faith, in the sacraments [!], and in the ministries is the goal of our ecumenical journey of grace.”
Leo XIV focused particularly on the year 2030, which will mark the 500th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, presenting it as an opportunity to advance Catholic-Lutheran ecumenism and the pursuit of “full, visible unity.”
He claimed: “The Augsburg Confession was originally intended as a document of reconciliation within the Church. Only later did it come to be understood as a text of divisive confessionalization.”
He wants to “succeed in affirming together the pre-confessional ecumenical potential of the Confessio Augustana.”
Main Objections to the Confessio Augustana
The Augsburg Confession (Confessio Augustana) was presented to Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg on 25 June 1530. Its principal author was Philipp Melanchthon, Luther’s closest theological collaborator.
The Catholic side did not accept the Augsburg Confession. Catholic theologians acknowledged those articles they judged consistent with the Catholic faith, rejected the disputed Lutheran doctrines, and answered them in the Confutatio Augustana.
Most seriously, Article XXIV rejects the understanding of the Mass as sacrifice.
Article IV of the Augsburg Confession teaches justification through faith alone.
Article XII reduces repentance principally to contrition and faith and rejects the necessity of satisfaction for the remission of punishment.
Articles XXI, XXVI and XXVII attack or undermine important elements of sacramental and devotional life: the invocation of the saints, the Church’s authority over fasting, and the theology of religious vows and consecrated chastity.
Article XXIII attacks clerical celibacy and defends the marriage of priests.
Picture: Vatican Media, #newsRumypjcghk