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Vatican Watch --

Religious News Service: The Vatican said Tuesday (June 22) its agreement with the Lutheran Church on the doc-
trine that faith alone leads to salvation does not represent a "repudiation of the past." The statement, made by the
Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, was seen as an indication of the continuing sensitivity
of the issue of faith vs. works that was at the heart of the Protestant Reformation of four centuries ago.

It was the second clarification of the "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification" drawn up by the two
churches after decades of dialogue. On June 12, Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Vatican council, and
the Rev. Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, issued an "Official Common State-
ment" and an "Annex" to the declaration. They said the two documents will be signed along with the declaration on
Oct. 31, which Lutheran churches celebrate as Reformation Day in honor of Martin Luther's posting of his 95
theses on the church door at Wittenberg, Germany, in 1517, setting off the debate that led to the division of Prot-
estants from the Roman Catholic Church.

In Tuesday's statement, the Vatican council said there had been "some erroneous interpretations" by the news
media of the significance of the previous documents. Quoting from all three documents, the council said that
biblical studies, research on the history of theology and dogma and the ecumenical dialogue begun three decades
ago at the Second Vatican council "have led to a significant convergence regarding the doctrine of justification."

The council said the condemnations the two churches leveled at each other in the 16th century have been ex-
amined "from new perspectives." It said that while the Catholic Church recognizes that it is faith that leads to sal-
vation, "this faith is active in (God's) love and for this reason the Christian cannot remain without works."

"Thus there has been no repudiation of the past but rather a common step forward in the understanding of the
mystery of salvation in Christ made possible by the climate of reciprocal trust which has been introduced and
which invites us to continue in the same soirit on the path undertaken," the council said.

[BV: What Lutherans can "trust" is this: According to the Vatican Secretariat for Promoting
Christian Unity, Rome has no intention of "re-examining any of her fixed dogmatic positions."]

Oregonian, 9/6/2000: VATICAN DECLARES ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIMACY. The Vatican, asserting the pri-
macy of the Roman Catholic Church, issued a declaration Tuesday rejecting what it said are growing attempts to
depict all religions as equal. The 36-page declaration accused some Catholic theologians of manipulating funda-
mental truths of the Church to justify religious pluralism as a principle. The idea that "one religion is as good as
another" endangers the Church's missionary message, the declaration said.

"If it is true that the followers of other religions can receive divine grace, it is also certain that, objectively
speaking, they are in a gravely deficient situation in comparison with those who, in the Church, have the fullness
of the means of salvation," the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's orthodoxy, declared.

Other Christian denominations, the document said, "derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth
entrusted to the Roman Catholic Church."

Anglicanism's spiritual leader, Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, said, "The idea that Anglican and other
churches are not 'proper churches' seems to question the considerable gains we have made."

[BV: Here we have a declaration of "primacy" by a church which itself is "gravely deficient" in
the most important issue of all -- the gospel of salvation.]

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