(Ecumenical News International 2.22.99)Warsaw (ENI). Pope John Paul II is scheduled to hold his
first-ever meeting with Muslim leaders from Eastern Europe during a visit to Poland in June this year. According to Bishop Wladyslaw Miziolek, a member of the Catholic Church in Poland's ecumenical council, the talks are intended to encourage Christians and Muslims to recall their "common spiritual roots" by promoting closer inter-faith co-operation throughout Europe.

(Geneva AP 6/11/99)The Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches have ended a nearly 5-century-old dispute over how people achieve salvation, officials announced Friday. The accord represents "a decisive step forward in the process of reconciliation," said Rev. Ismael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation.

After 30 years of consultations among theologians, the two sides announced agreement almost a year ago on a Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, meant to resolve a doctrinal debate at the heart of the 16th century Protestant Reformation that split Western Christianity.
But differences remained on the interpretation and wording of the accord, and it took several more months to complete a three-page annex and statement clarifying the churches' position.

"It's not a document of compromise," said Cardinal Edward Cassidy, who heads the Vatican's office for relations with other denominations. "It's a document based on truth, but in a spirit of reconciliation." The two sides crafted compromise language on "basic truths" regarding
what theologians call "justification," or how humankind achieves salvation.

"We do not claim agreement on all issues related to the doctrine of justification," Noko said. "Nevertheless, we have reached consensus on the principal points." Noko said the federation's 124 member churches, which represent 57 million Lutherans, had approved the agreement announced last year and did not need to act on the additions. Pope John Paul II, leader of the world's 1
billion Roman Catholics, gave his final approval in late May. The declaration and the new additions will be formally signed Oct. 31 in Augsburg, Germany. On that day in 1517, Martin Luther is said to have posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg,
Germany.

(Charisma Magazine, July 1999) Last year the pontiff said he welcomes renewal in the church. The Catholic Church has a long history of support for the charismatic movement dating back to VATICAN II , where is 1965 Cardinal Leo J. Suenens of Belgium argued against those who said charismatic gifts were only for the early church. "No," Suenens said, "these gifts are for today. You may not see them yet, but the Lord has them for the church." His words appear in the text of the council documents as a prophetic statement that prepared the church for what was going to happen two years later, in 1967. Priests are uncomfortable with the renewal but the Catholic hierarchy is quite supportive. The revival hit the Catholic Church and the Theological Committee of American Bishops issued a statement saying that THE CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT HAS A SOUND SCRIPTURAL FOUNDATION. A record-breaking crowd of 500,000 showed up for the pope.

(Sun, 8.17.99) "The Heaven in which we will find ourselves is neither an abstraction nor a physical place among the clouds," the 79-year-old pontiff declared to a crowd of pilgrims assembled in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican. "Paradise will be a state of being after death, a living and personal relationship with the Holy Trinity." The Pope referred to a recent Jesuit magazine, Civila Cattolica (Catholic Civilization), which officially redefined Hell not as a lake of fire, but as a separation from God, earned by those sinners who have consciously chosen not to do good.
On the other hand, those who lead righteous lives will be rewarded, the Pope says, with a close communion and full intimacy with God. Heaven is a blessed community of those who remained faithful to Jesus Christ in their lifetime and are now at one with glory," he says.
This dramatic announcement flies in the face of traditional Catholic teachings. For example, the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary, stated as recently as 1950, directly implies the existence of a physical Heaven somewhere above Earth - because Mary's physical body was supposed to have been lifted to Heaven by God.
Despite declaring Heaven and Hell as non-physical places, the Pope has declared demons as literally real beings, "spirits which rebelled against God," who exist as a warning of the real possibility of eternal damnation. The Pope shocked millions of believers when he proclaimed God was not the white-haired father figure depicted in classic paintings through history.
[Editor's note: This statement feeds into the Islamic belief. Notice the angel on his tiara, which also speaks to Muslims.