Posted on 01/17/2017 1:43:37 PM PST by ebb tide
If you happen to receive a piece of mail from the Vatican this year, don’t be surprised to see the face of Martin Luther.
The Vatican office charged with issuing stamps, known as the Philatelic and Numismatic Office, confirmed Tuesday to LifeSiteNews that Luther, who broke away from the Catholic Church in a schism 500 years ago, will be celebrated with a postage stamp in 2017. The office is in charge of the annual commission of stamps, coins, and other commemorative medals.
The Vatican regularly issues such memorabilia for special events, including papal trips and holy years. Honoring Luther and the Protestant Reformation is an unlikely choice, trumping other significant events in the Catholic Church such as the 100-year anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady of Fatima and the 300-year anniversary of our Lady of Aparecida, Brazil.
Major events such as Christmas, Easter, the Holy Year of Mercy, and the World Meeting of Families have also merited a commemorative stamp. In the time before a Papal election, when the seat of Peter is vacant, the Philatelic and Numismatic office issues a “Sede Vacante” stamp.
Usually if individuals are commemorated on stamps they are saints, such as Teresa of Calcutta, John Paul II, and Pope John XXIII, who most recently were honored with stamps.
While the Vatican has in the past collaborated with other national post offices to create stamps that are not of explicitly religious content, such as Charlie Chaplain or the fall of the Berlin wall, the Luther stamp has an undeniable religious connotation linked with much hostility to the Catholic Church.
In 1517, Martin Luther published his 95 theses against the Catholic Church and began what thereafter has been known as the Reformation, leading to a schism in the Church. This was followed by the formation of Protestant denominations that later spilled into other countries, fueled by others such as John Calvin and Jan Hus. The confessional war that followed, the “Thirty Years’ War,” with its 10 million deaths was known to be the bloodiest war in Europe until World War I.
Luther, an Augustinian monk, was excommunicated in 1521 by Pope Leo X with the papal bull, Decet Romanum Pontificem. At age 41, he married Katharina von Bora, a run-away Cistercian nun of 26 years.
Pope Francis was criticized in the fall for his trip to Lund, Sweden for a commemoration of the Reformation's 500th anniversary. He held an ecumenical event with Lutherans in the Vatican on October 13 with a statue of Martin Luther displayed. He has also suggested an openness to some Lutherans receiving the Eucharist. A Vatican office under his direction recently referred to Luther as a "witness to the Gospel."
Well, Luther was kicked out of the Catholic church, after which he chose to marry Katharina von Bora, who was the last of the "refugee nuns" to be married off, but there was no divorce and/or remarriage there.
Hitler called himself a “pure heathen” and never practiced Catholicism after his middle teens.
It was Hindenburg who was related to the Luthers, on Katharina von Bora's side, I think.
As a former Catholic and current LCMS Lutheran, I am not jazzed about this in any way.
He is really trying hard to get liberal lutheran denominations back on board in some sycretistic/unionistic false unity drive.
The differences in beliefs are not trivial. Luther was reluctant to leave but the differences on core issues is not reconciliable. Can have fake unity but not real unity.
Many of the recent popes had no problem with kumbaya unity.
Any stamps for Menno Simons and Jakob Amman?
Ridiulous.
You mean someone back in the 1500s said things that were less than civilized?
Have bad news for you, but about 95% of Europe backthen , to 1945, then was so full of goofy Jew hate that they didn’t need Martin Luther to teach them how to hurt them.
Exactly who is left that is Catholic to “remind” him?
And how can you remind someone that he is Catholic...when he is not?
And not Our Lady of Fatima.
He shoulda done this yesterday. Y’know on the guy’s national holiday.
Luther wasn’t a nice guy. And he would likely reject 3/4 of everything today that is called protestant. But without him and the reforms that the Roman church adopted afterwards, they would have likely become less and less relevant and wound up as some failed version of the church.
They lost a lot of their corruption after him, though no one alive will apparently admit it.
The modern RCC is a very much better thing that it was before Luther.
The 30 years war was a price to pay. The alternative was a catholic dominated Europe.
Not really necessary.
As a Sephardic Jew, I am very aware of the Catholic Church’s history with my few remaining people.
Luther, however, stands out as one of the foulest.
Funny how Catholics keep ignoring the fact that the Catholic church ex-communicated him.
They KICKED HIM OUT.
But I guess they can't let little details like facts stand in their way.
Would you touch that with your tongue?
Luther’s letters reveal he had some pretty intense disorders (of the scatalogic variety). http://www.academia.edu/1016951/German_Hercules_The_Impact_of_Scatology_on_the_Image_of_Martin_Luther_as_a_Man_1483-1546
Especially as 2017 is the centennial of the Fatima apparitions. BTW, has the Vatican ever lifted Luther's 1521 excommunication? Would this be the first time the Vatican has so honored someone they still formally consider a heretic?
"Just following the example of that papally-recognized religious genius, our role model the Blessed Martin Luther!"
Irony often gets garbled on FR, so -- lest my sarcasm be misinterpreted --- I do not think the Four Cardinals are at all analogous to Dr. Luther. They are teachers of Catholic Doctrine and, in fact, outstanding defenders of the Papal Magisterium.
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