Vinteren 1991 leste jeg et brev som jeg n\u00e5 for et par dager siden fant igjen (p\u00e5 nettet), og leste p\u00e5 nytt – om en lutherske prest som nylig hadde blitt katolikk. Jeg var i USA noen uker den vinteren; hadde studiepermisjon for \u00e5 studere luthersk kirkeliv. Jeg m\u00f8tte da (i skrift) en gruppe av konservative og h\u00f8ykirkelige lutheranere, og jeg ble ganske snart p\u00e5virket av deres syn p\u00e5 ulike teologiske sp\u00f8rsm\u00e5l.<\/p>\n
En av lederne av denne bevegelsen, som kaller seg Evangelical Catholics, men er lutheranere, var Richard John Neuhaus. Han hadde nylig blitt katolikk, og hadde nettopp skrevet et brev til sine venner, som jeg s\u00e5 alts\u00e5 leste.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, September 8, 1990, the Nativity of Mary, I was received into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.\u00a0 In the months ahead I will be preparing to enter the priesthood of the Catholic Church.\u00a0 ….\u00a0 This decision is the result of many years of prayer, reflection, conversation, and, I firmly believe, the leading of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Especially over the last five years, I have resisted with great difficulty the recognition that I could no longer give an answer convincing to others or to me as to why I was not a Roman Catholic. Over the last 20 years and more, I have repeatedly and publicly urged that the separated ecclesial existence of Lutheranism, if it was once necessary, is no longer necessary; and, if no longer necessary, such separated existence is no longer justified.\u00a0 <\/i><\/font><\/p>\n Slik fortsetter Neuhaus en stund og forklarer hvorfor han valgte \u00e5 forlate den lutherske kirke. Men litt senere i brevet snakker han like tydelig og varmt om den kirke han nettopp hadde forlatt, om alt det god ehan hadde mottat der – uttalelser som ogs\u00e5 jeg helt og fullt kan slutte meg til.<\/b><\/p>\n I cannot begin to express adequately my gratitude for all the goodness I have known in the Lutheran communion. There I was baptized, there I learned my prayers, there I was introduced to Scripture and creed, there I was nurtured by Christ on Christ, there I came to know the utterly gratuitous love of God by which we live astonished. For my theological formation, for friendships beyond numbering, for great battles fought, for mutual consolations in defeat, for companionships in ministry–for all this I give thanks and know that I will forever be in debt to the church called Lutheran. Most especially am I grateful for my 30 years as a pastor. There is nothing in that ministry that I would repudiate, except my many sins and shortcomings. My becoming a priest in the Roman Catholic Church will be the completion and right ordering of what was begun 30 years ago. Nothing that was good is rejected, all is fulfilled.<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n