January 25, 2010. For the first time during his pontificate, Benedict XVI will visit a Lutheran Church in Rome.


The visit will take place March 14th. This visit comes on the heels of other meetings he’s had with Lutherans at the Vatican.

The President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Walter Kasper hinted of a possible visit during a press conference in October.

The visit is part of the Church’s call for ecumenical dialogue and the search for all Christians including Lutherans, to share the same fundamentals of the Christian faith.

This isn’t the time the pope shows a sign of strengthening relations between Catholics and Lutherans. In November of 2009, the pope celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Joint Declaration of the Doctrine of Justification between Catholics and Lutherans.

The declaration marked the end of the one of the issues that split both sides since the Reformation, after both acknowledged that faith and acts of faith are necessary for ones salvation.

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