The Lutheran/Catholic Joint Declaration on Justification About a year ago, I wrote an article for Our Sunday Visitor's "The Catholic Answer" on the Lutheran/Catholic Joint Declaration on Justification. Since then, there have been a few significant developments, one being the addition of an "Annex" which changed some of the wording of the Joint Declaration, and second, the signing of the Joint Declaration (JD) and its Annex on October 31, 1999 by officials from both the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church. This present article will give an update on the issues and offer a few opinions as to the significance of the signing. My goal in this article is to give a fair and honest assessment of the Joint Declaration, both its good points and its notso-good points; what it is and what it is not.
NB: The Joint Declaration on Justification was signed on October 31, 1999 by officials from the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church. The signer for the Catholic Church was Cardinal Edward Cassidy. Neither Pope John Paul II nor the Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, were present at the signing nor sought to sign the document afterward.