Last weekend my wife and I were picked up at the airport by Rich and Sherry Siniawski. It didn't take long to discover that Rich grew up Catholic. His marriage had brought him into the Lutheran church, and he has served in practically every office a congregation has to offer, including council president. When I asked him how his parents had reacted to him marrying a Lutheran, he said they simply were glad he would be active in a church. As a Lutheran college president I discovered that Catholics were the second largest religious group in the student body.
Good things flow the other way as well.
In The Cloister Walk, Kathleen Norris describes how her conversations with Benedictine monks have enriched her life as a Presbyterian. Many Lutheran clergy, too, have used the resources of Catholic spiritual directors to help them in their pastoral ministry. This convergence on the local and personal level has been paralleled by an international exchange. This statement tells us that the growing trust between us has been based on shared faith, not just on spongy sentiment. There are still incidents and problems that recall the nearly 500 years of suspicion and separate history that divide us.