“The Doctrine of Justification has divided us for almost 500 years, bringing great suffering to many. Through our missionary work we even exported our differences to other continents,” Walter Cardinal Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said in his keynote address at an ecumenical seminar on October 30 that was part of the celebration marking the fifth anniversary of the Joint Declaration in Johannesburg, South Africa.  

Both Kasper and Rev. Dr. Ishmael Noko, General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, stressed that the achievement of the JDDJ, signed by the LWF and the Roman Catholic Church on October 31, 1999 in Augsburg, Germany, represented one of the boldest ecumenical developments in modern church history. They both also stressed the need to translate the doctrine of justification into the language of today. “The doctrine of justification is not very well known, even among active church members,” Noko remarked in his address, “but God’s divine gift to us of justice by grace has implications for our human practices of social justice.”

Rev. Louis Sibiya, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa said, “The Joint Declaration is holistic and was meant to express itself in changed life patterns and attitudes, otherwise to our lay members it will only be a meeting of pastors and bishops.”

(Excerpts from October 31, 2004 Lutheran World Information.) 

For more information about the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.