The Ministry in the Context of the Ecclesial Mission of Preaching of the Gospel in the Light of the Catholic-Lutheran Dialogue

Andrzej Jankoski

Abstract

The purpose of the presented article is the investigation of preaching of the Gospel as a constitutive element of the Church in Catholic-Lutheran ecumenical dialogue. We can conclude that both Catholic and Lutheran revised their ecclesiological standpoints. In the course doctrinal dialogue both confessions admitted that the spiritual ministry is a necessary and constitutive factor of the Church. Indeed God saves the man by the word and sacraments, but without the ministry of those, who preach the Gospel and administer sacraments, divine salvific working would be impossible. An important aspect of the approaching of both confessions is an open attitude towards acknowledgment of sacramental character of the Lutheran ordination. Next, the doctrine of the Second Vatican Council approximated the Catholics to Lutheran subjection to the primacy of the Gospel. The minister isnt over the Word of God, but under it. The clergymen have to listen it with a deep estimation, keep it and truly explain it. According to the doctrine of Catholic Church and the Lutheran Communities only an ordained minister is entitled to preach the Gospel. In the Catholic Church there can be a bishop, a presbyter or a deacon, in the Lutheran Church an ordained minister, although in particular circumstances a community can assign someone from its members. Such possibility constitutes an essential ecclesiological difference. In the ecumenical dialogue an understanding of the ministry of the episkop cause difficulties. Luther and his followers faced with the necessity of ministry of the Word and sacraments ordered by themselves new pastors. Although Luther and Melanchton wanted to preserve the episcopal ministry, nevertheless among the majority of the Lutheran Communities it appeared impossible. From the catholic point of view, the decline of the episcopate by Lutherans caused the loss of the apostolic succession. In Catholic-Lutheran dialogue emerge in this context a distinction between the internal and the external succession. The former one consists in the interrupted series of laying on of hands, the other consists in continuation of the apostolic faith, i.e. passing of genuine truth of the Gospel and apostolic Tradition inseparably connected with it. So the Catholic and Lutherans have to face question whether internal succession such understood is sufficient to preserve apostolic character of the Church. The Catholic-Lutheran dialogue suggested a conclusion, that the ministry of presbyter is indispensable for building the ecclesial community in regards to the office of preaching of the Gospel and administering of the sacraments. As far as for the Lutherans the office of the presbyters is necessary, while the existence of the bishop seems to be solely useful, for the Catholics the bishops are the followers of the Apostles, guardians of the faith and continuers of the apostolic Tradition. Such difference can warrant further research in common dialogue.