From Christianity Today online.

A thoughtful piece. Check it out and see what you think.

Few Christian institutions have the historic scale and scope of the

Catholic Church in the arenas of health care, education, and works-of-mercy outreach to the poor. The Catholic Church is the largest health-care provider in the world, managing 26 percent of all health-care facilities. It runs the largest U.S. K–12 private school network, serving more than 2 million students. But scarcer esources mean that needed schools, clinics, and ministries face closure every year. This reality provides Protestants and Catholicsa new context for collaboration in mission. We trust the new pope will support such partnerships.

Relations between Catholics and Protestants are warmer than ever. For example, the Vatican has reached out to conservative Episcopalians who have quit the national church. It has accommodated their desire to retain their Anglican identity and established communion with them. There is a similar plan developing for Lutherans in Germany. But the era of competition is not over: In Brazil, the nation with the largest Catholic population, tensions remain at boiling point. The influx of cradle Catholics by the millions into evangelical and charismatic congregations is historic. It shows few signs of tapering off.

Catholic-Protestant partnership, then, whether at the grassroots or the grasstops, must be grounded in mutual commitments: to the authority of Scripture, the atoning work of Christ, the need for individual salvation and conversion, and the expression of the gospel through evangelism and social action. But given the monumental spiritual and social challenges of the 21st century, it is more important than ever that Protestants and Catholics figure out how and where they can work together.