{"id":34439,"date":"2016-10-25T23:26:47","date_gmt":"2016-10-26T04:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=34439"},"modified":"2016-10-27T19:20:02","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T00:20:02","slug":"milestones-in-papal-ecumenism-part-five","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2016\/10\/25\/milestones-in-papal-ecumenism-part-five\/","title":{"rendered":"Milestones in Papal Ecumenism: Part Five"},"content":{"rendered":"

From June 1st-11th, 1989 Pope John Paul II made a whirlwind tour of the Scandinavian countries: Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. Although there was formal contact<\/a> with the Lutheran Church of Finland since 1985, and there was a network of contact between the Lutheran Churches of Scandanavia for similarly long times, this was the first tour of a pope to these predominately Lutheran nations, and one that was billed not only as a pastoral visit to the tiny Roman Catholic community, who, as a percentage of the population,\u00a0numbered in the single digits in Scandinavia, but also as a chance to have ecumenical encounters with the Lutheran Christians there.<\/p>\n

The ecumenical aspect of the trip, unfortunately, largely fell flat<\/a>. Although he began his time in Norway by recalling the bitterness that has divided Christians and reiterating the fact that unity was possible, he stressed that dialogue needed to be continued to restore eucharistic communion. This was not well received by the Lutheran Bishops. Bishop Andreas Aarflot, the bishop of the Lutheran Diocese of Oslo, stated this in clear ters: ”We look forward to the day when Your Holiness clearly and unequivocally expresses the recognition of the ecclesiastical character of the Lutheran and other Protestant churches.” Seven of the eleven Lutheran bishops did not attend the ecumenical service in Nidaros Cathedral located in Trondheim, in the north of Norway.<\/p>\n