Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification

The declaration has 44 numbered paragraphs and an appendix of sources. It was drawn up from the reports of the official Lutheran–Catholic dialogue and sent to the churches in 1997; the Dicastery’s site files it under that year. It was confirmed by both parties at Augsburg on 31 October 1999 through a separate Official Common Statement by the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church, with its Annex.

The text is exact about what it claims. It does not cover all that either church teaches about justification, it says, but contains “a consensus in basic truths” of the doctrine (paragraphs 5, 13, 40). Section 3 states the common understanding; section 4 takes seven disputed topics in turn, each with a paragraph that both confess together followed by a Lutheran and a Catholic explanation. Paragraph 41 says that the teaching of each side as presented in the declaration does not fall under the other’s condemnations, and paragraph 43 lists questions that still need clarification. It is the primary source for Lutherans and Catholics Agree on Justification.