(ANSA) - Lund, October 31 - A goal of the joint declaration signed by Pope Francis on Monday with Bishop Mounib Younan, President of the Lutheran World Federation, is to reach intercommunion so that members of both churches can partake in Holy Communion together.

"Many members of our communities yearn to receive the Eucharist at one table, as the concrete expression of full unity," the declaration reads.

"We acknowledge our joint pastoral responsibility to respond to the spiritual thirst and hunger of our people to be one in Christ." Pope Francis arrived in Malmo on Monday to start a two-day visit to largely Protestant and deeply secular Sweden as part of the events for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

