On Sunday, November 15, Pope Francis paid a visit to the Lutheran Evangelical Christuskirche in Rome to meet with leaders and other members of the community. He also participated in their liturgy.
Calling on Lutherans and Catholics to walk together in love, he said that “poverty is the center of the Gospel… did you use your life for yourself or to serve? To defend yourself from others with walls, or to welcome with love? This will be the final decision of Jesus.”
He again spoke of the end times, and said that Jesus always accompanied those he guided. “What side are we on?” he asked. Jesus “also serves for unity, which helps us to walk together,” he said, noting how the two congregations had just prayed together, and in many situations “loved together” by working to care for the poor and the needy.
He closed his homily by praying for the grace of “reconciled diversity… (to be like) God who came to us to serve and not to be served.”
Catholics and Lutherans recognize each others baptisms as valid. Francis said, in answer to a question, “that as Christians we all have the same baptism, and that going to each other’s [communion] services is a way to participate in the Lord’s Supper together.” He again stressed that we all share “one baptism, one Lord, one faith.”
Pope Francis is a man on an ecumenical mission. He continually calls for closer and closer ties between various Christian groups, in this case, the Evangelical Lutherans.
“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him,” Revelation 13:8
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