Germany's Evangelical Church has issued a landmark invitation for Pope Francis to visit the country, according to America magazine.
The invitation is the first by the Church to a Pope since the Reformation began 500 years ago. It was delivered by the chairman of the Council of the Evangelical Church (EKD) on a visit to the Vatican on Monday as part of the commemorations of the event.
Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm told Francis at their meeting in his private library he had "struck a new chord of goodness and mercy for all people".
Francis told the delegation: "We have the same baptism: We must walk together, without growing tired." He said there was no going back on the road to unity; Catholics and evangelicals must "continue to witness together to the Gospel and to continue on the road to full unity".
Referring to the problem of inter-communion between Catholics and Protestants, Bedford-Strohm told the Pope: "It is sometimes a painful reality in families: couples who share children, grandchildren and friends are divided at the Lord's table."
Pope Francis hailed the fact that Catholics and evangelicals are commemorating the historic events of the Reformation together "in order to put, once again, Christ at the centre of their relations".
He welcomed a joint evangelical-Catholic initiative in Germany to hold a ceremony of penance and reconciliation in March.
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have expressed "remorse" about the violence associated with the Reformation, which began in 1517 when Martin Luther, a rebel German monk, nailed his 95 theses to the cathedral door in his town of Wittenberg.
The symbolic event triggered a gradual rupture and led to the formation of various Protestant factions. Centuries of violence between Protestant and Catholic countries followed with rulers who adhered to one Church frequently executing proponents of the other.
