‘From conflict to communion’: Lutheran World Federation meets with Pope

Pope Leo met on Thursday morning with a delegation from the Lutheran World Federation, expressing his appreciation for the way Catholic-Lutheran relations have “matured both spiritually and theologically over the decades”.

Among those in attendance was the Rev Dr Anne Burghardt, the Federation’s General Secretary and an ordained pastor in the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church.

After the meeting, she stopped by for an interview in Vatican News’ offices, discussing Catholic-Lutheran relations, synodality, and the upcoming 500th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, a foundational Lutheran text.

The following transcript has been lightly edited for style and brevity