During his many years at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as well as during his pontificate, the late Pope Benedict XVI made incisive contributions to the search for Christian unity, although some of his teaching also was read as ecumenically insensitive.
While the late pope forged strong bonds of friendship and esteem with the leaders of the world’s Orthodox and Anglican Christians, his papacy also coincided with a difficult time in the search for full Christian unity. In the face of new obstacles to ecumenism -- particularly regarding the ministry of women, attitudes toward homosexuality and differences on ethical issues -- Pope Benedict often emphasized the role of prayer in seeking Christian unity, as well as the need for divided Christians to work together to protect religious freedom and defend traditional Christian values.
From personal experience and theological study, his longest ecumenical engagement came in the area of Catholic-Lutheran relations. Shortly after Pope Benedict resigned in 2013, the Rev. Nikolaus Schneider, then head of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany, told reporters at the Vatican how important the contributions of then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger were for the landmark 1999 Catholic-Lutheran theological agreement on justification, the dispute at the heart of the Protestant Reformation.
Rev. Schneider also described as “historic” Pope Benedict’s decision in 2011 to visit the former Augustinian monastery where Luther lived until 1511. But Rev. Schneider also told reporters the German-born pope “offended” Protestants when, as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in 2000 he insisted Protestant communities were not “churches in the proper sense” because they have not preserved apostolic succession among their bishops nor a traditional understanding of the mystery of the Eucharist.
Then-Cardinal Ratzinger repeatedly explained that the assertion in the document “Dominus Iesus” was simply a statement of Catholic belief, not a judgment of others. But particularly because the doctrinal congregation reviewed every joint ecumenical statement before publication, the statement cast a pall over the Church’s dialogue with other Christian communities for several years.
Story and photo taken from CNS. See more information about the late pontiff on the diocesan website news page