Following the personal ordinariate instituted for Anglicans, Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller was quoted as saying essentially that the Church might consider a similar arrangement for Lutherans but only if they ask for one.
Seems simple enough, right? The archbishop is basically saying the Church won't go where she's not invited in this case. Well, leave it to the Lutherans to complicate a situation that isn't even all that complicated to begin with.
Martin Junge, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, shot his mouth off by saying that the Church waiting for Lutherans to make the first move before thinking much about reconciliation "would have deep ecumenical repercussions".
Lutheran Bishop Friedrich Weber, effectively the Lutheran church in Germany's envoy to Rome, said that an ordinariate would be "an unecumenical incitement to switch sides."
Sometimes in life you read something so stupid that it hurts. Lewis Black, the standup comedian, reached a similar conclusion when he heard someone utter the phrase "if it weren't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college." And because he's a standup comedian, he made several profane jokes about it. Which is why you're reading a summary of it here rather than watching an embedded YouTube video.
If I didn't know where he was coming from before, I do now.
See, in the weird, goofy, backwards world in which I apparently live, I'd always assumed the point of (to be polite) inter-denominational dialogue such as that which goes on between the Catholic Church and the Lutherans was hopefully to eventually reach some sort of understanding with one another. Unification is, I presume, the end goal. Otherwise why are we here? Surely it can't be to "learn from each other". I assume the reason representatives from the Church have occasion to speak to that misguided bunch of schismatics and heretics the Lutherans is for reasons other than a pleasant chat about the weather.
On that basis, how could the Church setting up an ordinariate possibly endanger ecumenical relations? Would that not be the entire point of ecumenical relations?
And of course, to even speak of an ordinariate is premature at this juncture since Archbishop Müller has said that the Holy Father won't even consider establishing one until and unless the Lutherans specifically ask for them to do so. So why are the Lutherans getting their panties in a twist?
It's a fair, if slightly rhetorical, question. Because I suspect I think I have an answer.
I just did a quick Google search. I found 175 different versions of Lutheranism. 175. And 36 of those are church bodies located in North America.
Perhaps it's a fitting bit of historical tragic irony (or maybe poetic justice) but Lutheranism is an incredibly fractured institution. They're so fragmented that maybe they should be having ecumenical dialogue with each other before they worry about the Catholic Church.
In any case, Lutheranism, like much of the Protestant mainline, has been waning for years. What that implies for their worldwide figures is beyond me and I'm too lazy to check but the current number is somewhere around 45 million. Worldwide.
To put that in perspective, there are 75 million Catholics in the United States alone. That works out to 25% of the country's population.
To put that into further perspective, 5% of Americans are Lutheran. 4% of Americans self-identify as gay.
So what's the REAL issue here? I've got a theory. It's just speculation. Don't give it any more credence than that.
2017 marks the 500th anniversary of Luther's Revolt the beginning of Protestantism. That means a lot of attention will be paid to the Lutheran church. Lots of free advertising. So how much do you think Lutheran bishops want to risk even the smallest possibility of headlines that they might reunite with the Mother Church right now? Why, that might divert attention from the 500th anniversary of Luther's Folly! No, no, we can't have that! The optics here are just BAD!
In all likelihood, the Lutherans know their time is up. My guess is they're desperately clinging to the small amount of relevance they have left in the hope that the magic 500 number will miraculously beef up their membership rolls.
Methinks there's a very real fear in Geneva that press coverage of the 500th anniversary will center mostly on what a monumental failure Protestantism in general and Lutheranism in particular both are. The reality staring the Lutheran church in the face every day is that the 500th anniversary is likely to be their swan song rather than a joyful, triumphant celebration or, in their wildest dreams, a return to the prestige and influence they used to enjoy.
The simple fact of the matter is that Geneva needs Rome more than Rome needs Geneva. Everybody involved knows that too but the Church is too polite to say so and the Lutherans are too proud.
Now, yes, I feel bad about the unwanted divorce the church suffered nigh 500 years ago. We should all be saddened by the schism and heresy Luther led his people into. So my snark and sanctimony are tempered by the sobering reality that Luther has endangered countless souls.
But then that's somewhat colored by the fact that my soul was indirectly one such and that angers me because the Protestants lied to me my entire life about the Church, her true teachings and her place in history.
The fact that their membership rosters have been utterly decimated by further divisions saddens me not one bit. If anything, I rather enjoy seeing the Protestant mainline be humbled.
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