The Historic Inquisition (joking) and travel to Geneva

These will be short notes. I will do more, but probably not until I am home. In the time since we left Istanbul the days have been 14 hours from the time we leave the hotel until we return and it is catching up with me.

Saturday we met with two congregations. Congregations rank above Councils in the Vatican system. For example, Cardinal Kasper leads the Pontifical Council on Christian Unity, while the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith has the responsibility to maintain the theological integrity of the Roman Catholic Church. The Congregation for Doctrine became infamous for its work leading the inquisition. They no longer call their work the "defense of faith and morals" they call it "promotion of faith and morals." A softer sounding name. We expected meeting with the Congregation for Doctrine to encounter some response about the Churchwide Assembly action related to gay and lesbian people, but the leaders of the Congregation said nothing. In both Istanbul and Rome, where we anticipated some questions and maybe even challenges, but instead we heard only one message - the dialogues will continue. Neither church is happy with the direction of the ELCA, but they are not prepared to end dialogue. The Pope was clear in his statement to us - we must continue the dialogue and not move away from one another.

Let me jump forward for a moment to a conversation we had today with the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, Olav Fyrse Tveit a Lutheran pastor from Norway. In a lunch conversation a couple of people suggested that because of decisions that have been made regarding sexuality the divide between progressive Christians and more traditional Christians has widened, the results being an "ecumenical winter." Secretary Tveit sat and listened for a long time, then he said, "I want to know what is wrong with winter? I come from Norway and I don't find anything wrong with winter. In winter we have time to be together and talk." He went on to say that some things might change, negotiations might progress more slowly, but we will keep working together and our partners in the Orthodox and Roman Catholic communions will not move away from us.

Back to our last day in Rome. We all know the Catholic structure to be hierarchical, what I didn't know is that the hierarchy gets portrayed by the distance from the grave of St. Peter. The closer a Congregation or Council is to St. Peter's the more powerful. The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith has its offices inside the Vatican with a wonderful view of St. Peter's while the Councils were down the street outside the Vatican. The Congregation for doctrine employs fifty staff people to review theological positions of theologians and safeguard Catholic doctrine.

In the afternoon we toured the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel, but first we stopped at Monsignor Turk's favorite restaurant - a small mom and pop Italian place two blocks from the Vatican. Neither of the owners spoke any English, but we had no trouble communicating. The cook, a wonderfully stereotypical Italian mother made it clear we would eat the enormous plate of salad she prepared before the pasta would be served. Everything came family style, cooked, delivered and coached by this boisterous woman. On my second plate of pasta (I was attempting to eat a light lunch - hah) she looks me right in the eye and says, "Padre, mangia!"

The World Council of Churches

Today's experience went very differently. Here in Geneva it feels like being on home territory for the first time on this journey. Even the body language changed dramatically. Bishop Hanson sat at the head table with the leaders of other churches instead of on the side of the table or away from the other leaders. Here he is the President of the Lutheran World Federation (69 million Lutherans) and works with many of the people in the building on a regular basis. Dr. Noko, the General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation said, "You are on a journey, not a trip. A trip can be cancelled, a journey cannot be cancelled because you go as apostles, sent by the church. Every where you have been you represented all 69 million of us, you speak for us, you listen for us."

I will tell you more about our time in Geneva when I have an opening, but now - off to bed.

Notes on the pictures: First snow in Rome in over 25 years. At tonight's dinner we ate with the General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation and four Ambassadors to the United Nations in Geneva including Phillip Richard Owade the ambassador from Kenya.