Lutherans to Be Invited Into Catholic Church?

Collared Lemming,
 Credit: Don Reid, Wildlife Conservation Society

Lutherans could be invited to join the Catholic Church in the same way that Anglicans were invited to in 2009, Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity said October 29.

Anglicans can re-join the Catholic Church through groups called ordinariates, which allow them to keep many of their traditions such as married bishops while being absorbed into the Roman Catholic Church.

In an interview with Zenit, on the sidelines of a Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization, Koch began his statement about Lutherans by saying, “Anglicanorum coetibus [the document describing the ordinariates] was not an initiative of Rome, but came from the Anglican Church.” This is dishonest. Rome saw that the Anglican Church was divided, and swooped in to take advantage of it. Even the archbishop of Canterbury was taken by surprise. The whole thing was planned and coordinated by the pope. It certainly was an initiative of Rome. Read more

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