For the first time in 500 years Pope Francis, Bishop Munib Younana and General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, Rev Dr Martin Junge, will sign their names to the invitation for the 500th Anniversary of the Lutheran Reform in a highly significant gesture. Equally significant is the title that was chosen for the event: “From Conflict to Communion – Unity in Hope”. The event will be held on October 31st with an ecumenical service at the Cathedral of Lund, followed by a public ceremony at Malmö Stadium in Sweden. The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (1999) was already a milestone for Catholic-Lutheran ecumenical dialogue, an important historical document that this year will serve as the theological basis the search of unity in the one Church of Christ. There has been a long history of friendship between the Focolare Movement and Lutherans. It was precisely the encounter with them that made Chiara Lubich realize that the spirituality that God had entrusted to her was not meant only for Roman Catholics. The history: On January 14, 1961, Chiara Lubich had been invited to speak about the spirituality of unity to the Lutheran Sisterhood of Mary. Among the listeners were several Lutheran pastors, including Klaus Hess and his wife Amalie, founders of the Brotherhood of the Common Life in Germany. A few months later the Hess couple visited Rome to know more about the Focolare Movement and the Catholic Church. On May 24, 1961, Chiara founded “Centro Uno” for the unity of Christians and, in June 1968 she inaugurated the Ecumenical Centre at the permanent Mariapolis in Ottmaring, Germany. Meanwhile the Focolare spirituality was being welcomed by bishops, Catholics, Evangelicals and Lutherans in East and West Germany. The spirituality of unity was also spreading in Sweden, and more than half the people at the Mariapolis were Lutherans. In 1982 bishops from different Churches began to attend the Movement’s annual gatherings for Catholic Bishops Friends of the Focolare. In 2015 there were 6 Lutheran bishops from three countries at the Focolare meeting for bishops in Constantinople. In 1988, Chiara was awarded the Augsburg Peace Prize. In 1999, she was an invited guest at the historic signing of the Joint Declaration on Justification in Augsburg. She was invited to compose a prayer that she recited at that solemn celebration. In 2003, the then Lutheran bishop of Munich, Johannes Friedrich, visited the Internationals Centre of the Focolare Movement with a delegation. Chiara spoke to them about Jesus Forsaken: “He presented himself (…) as the model to be imitated in every trial and especially in the pains of disunity; (…) [Jesus] Forsaken is also [the] light for recomposing full visible unity”[1]. In 2009, Focolare president Maria Voce was invited to the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Joint Declaration. Since she will not be able to attend the 500th Anniversary of the Lutheran Reform, she will be represented by Friederike Koller and Ángel Bartol who are the Central Delegates of the Work of Mary.

See: Statement issued from the 35th Ecumenical Meeting of Bishops friends of the Focolare Movement.

[1]  Città Nuova 2003, 10, p 35