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."
Antisemitism was not uncommon in Germany back in Luther’s time, or Europe in General. Look up Johann Eck-he was a staunch Catholic, adversary of Luther and the Reformation, and virulent ant-semite himself. In 1541 he published “Against the Defense of the Jews “(German: Ains Juden-büechlins Verlegung). In it he opposes the position of the Nuremberg reformer Andreas Osiander,who sought to refute medieval superstition that Jews murdered Christian children, desecrated the eucharistic Host, and poisoned wells. Eck called Osiander a “Jew-protector” and “Jew-father”, and no fewer than nineteen times reviled the Jews, and called them “a blasphemous race”.
No, Luther is still excommunicated by the Catholic Church.
The Vatican hasn’t acted as the Catholic Church in decades though, so I wouldn’t go by what the “Vatican” says or does.
Having said that, I wouldn’t be surprised if the “Vatican” lifts his excommunication just before opening his cause for sainthood.
Pull the other leg! Yur' killin' me!
Context is everything.
Yes, I know, things are different now, and these guys are so solemn -- but the sarcasm disclaimer still doesn't work. You may have not be fully nailed yourself, but a few loose splinters of that door did take hold of your shawl.
Defenders of "papal magisterium"???
Oh, you must mean defenders of earlier past times 'teachings'...opposed to what they see as clearly enough serious error, now .
in his own time, and way.
Not a Cardinal (much less, four). Nearly alone at first...as the controversy "broke" and details examined, many examined the records and found Luther ---to be right about a lot of things, though not necessarily (it was not necessary to be) right about everything.
Runaway Del Shannon
No doubt a stamp honoring THE PROPHET Mohammed and Allah as the “one true God” will be coming soon.
...
Martin Luther hated Jews, so maybe this is a concession to Muslims.
perhaps they'd send y'all some booklets of those stamps, as keepsake mementos --- that could be even shared with family and friends.
Put one of the stamps on Valentine's Day cards, or Saint Bartholomew's Day memorial commemoration reminders maybe?
Don't forget to wet the backside (of the stamp) before placing on the envelopes.
If Charlie Chaplain or the fall of the Berlin wall can qualify for a Vatican stamp, there’s no reason Martin Luther shouldn’t be. He IS a saint, after all.
The Chaplin stamp was issued under Bergoglio’s pontificate. No surprise.
Roman Catholics should consider their own Church and its attitude toward the Jews before going after Luther:
Consider some things Catholics and the Catholic Church said.....
306 The Council of Elvira decrees that Christians and Jews cannot intermarry, have sexual intercourse, or eat together.
325 Conversation and fellowship with Jews is forbidden to the clergy by the Council of Nicea.
c. 380 St. Gregory of Nyssa refers to the Jews as “murderers of the Lord, assassins of the prophets, rebels and detesters of God,. . . companions of the devil, race of vipers, informers, calumniators, darkeners of the mind, pharisaic leaven, Sanhedrin of demons, accursed, detested,. . . enemies of all that is beautiful”.
388 A mob of Christians, at the instigation of their bishop, looted and burned the synagogue in Callinicum, a town on the Euphrates. The Emperor Theodosius wants those responsible punished and the synagogue rebuilt at the expense of the bishop, but St. Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, pressures him to relent and condone the action.
400 St. Augustine writes: “the Church admits and avows the Jewish people to be cursed, because after killing Christ they continue to till the ground of an earthly circumcision, an earthly Sabbath, an earthly passover, while the hidden strength or virtue of making known Christ, which this tilling contains, is not yielded to the Jews while they continue in impiety and unbelief, for it is revealed in the New Testament. While they will not turn to God, the veil which is on their minds in reading the Old Testament is not taken away. . . the Jewish people, like Cain, continue tilling the ground, in the carnal observance of the law, which does not yield to them its strength, because they do not perceive in it the grace of Christ”.
c. 400 Calling the synagogue “brothel and theater” and “a cave of pirates and the lair of wild beasts,” St. John Chrysostom writes that “the Jews behave no better than hogs and goats in their lewd grossness and the excesses of their gluttony”.
413 A group of monks sweep through Palestine, destroying synagogues and massacring Jews at the Western Wall.
414 St. Cyril of Alexandria expels Jews from his city.
538 The Third Synod of Orléans decrees that Jews cannot show themselves in the streets during Passover Week.
681 The Synod of Toledo orders the burning of the Talmud and other books.
768 Pope Stephen IV decries ownership of hereditary estates by “the Jewish people, ever rebellious against God and derogatory of our rites”.
c. 830 Agobard, Archbishop of Lyons, writes anti-Jewish pamphlets in which he refers to Jews as “sons of darkness”.
c. 937 Pope Leo VII encourages his newly appointed archbishop of Mainz to expel all Jews who refuse to be baptized.
1010-1020 In Rouen, Orléans, Limoges, Mainz, and probably also in Rome, Jews are converted by force, massacred, or expelled.
1050 The Synod of Narbonne decrees that Christians are not permitted to live in Jewish homes.
c. 1070 Pope Alexander II warns the bishops of Spain to prevent violence against the Jews because, unlike the Saracens, they “are prepared to live in servitude”.
1078 The Synod of Gerona decrees that Jews must pay the same taxes as Christians to support the church.
1081 Pope Gregory VII writes to King Alphonso of Spain telling him that if he allows Jews to be lords over Christians, he is oppressing the Church and exalting “the Synagogue of Satan”.
1096 Massacres of Jews takes place in the First Crusade, destroying entire Jewish communities in Mainz, Speyer, Worms, Cologne and other cities. The Jewish chronicler reports: “The enemies stripped them naked and dragged them off, granting quarter to none, save those few who accepted baptism. The number of the slain was eight hundred in these two days.” The chronicler Guibert de Nogent reports that the Rouen Crusaders said: “We desire to go and fight God’s enemies in the East; but we have before our eyes certain Jews, a race more inimical to God than any other”.
1182 Jews are expelled from France, all their property is confiscated, and Christians’ debts to them are cancelled with the payment of one-fifth of their value to the treasury.
1190 The Third Crusade, led by Richard the Lion-Heart, stirs anti-Jewish fervor and results in the mass suicide of the York Jews in Clifford’s Tower on March 16.
1215 The Fourth Lateran Council decrees that Jews are to wear distinctive clothing, and on the three days before Easter they are not to go out in public.
1222 The Council of Oxford prohibits the construction of new synagogues.
1227 The Council of Narbonne orders Jews to wear a round patch.
1234 The Council of Arles orders Jews to wear a round patch.
1246 The Council of Béziers orders Jews to wear a round patch.
1254 The Council of Albi orders Jews to wear a round patch.
1260 The Council of Arles orders Jews to wear a round patch, but not when traveling.
1267 The Synod of Vienna decrees that Christians cannot attend Jewish ceremonies, and Jews cannot dispute with simple Christian people about the Catholic religion.
1267 The Synod of Breslau decrees compulsory ghettos for Jews.
1279 The Synod of Ofen decrees that Christians cannot sell or rent real estate to Jews.
1284 The Council of Nîmes orders Jews to wear a round patch.
1289 The Council of Vienna orders Jews to wear a round patch.
1290 Jews are expelled from England and southern Italy.
1294 Jews in France are restricted to special quarters of the cities.
1294 Jews are expelled from Bern.
1298 The Jews of Röttingen, charged with profaning the Host, are massacred and burned down to the last one.
1320 The “Shepherds’ Crusade.” A Christian chronicler records: “The shepherds laid siege to all the Jews who had come from all sides to take refuge. . . the Jews defended themselves heroically. . . but their resistance served no purpose, for the shepherds slaughtered a great number of the besieged Jews by smoke and by fire. . . The Jews, realizing that they would not escape alive, preferred to kill themselves. . . They chose one of their number (and) this man put some five hundred of them to death, with their consent. He then descended from the castle tower with the few Jewish children who still remained alive. . . They killed him by quartering. They spared the children, whom they made Catholics by baptism”.
1326 The Council of Avignon orders Jews to wear a round patch, but not when traveling.
1347-1350 During the Black Death, Jews are accused of poisoning wells in order to overthrow Christendom, and many thousands of Jews are killed.
1394 The expulsion of Jews from France, begun in 1306, is completed with an edict promulgated on the Jewish Day of Atonement.
1420 Jews are expelled from Mainz by the archbishop.
1434 The Council of Basel decrees that Jews cannot obtain academic degrees.
1456 Pope Callistus III bans all social communication between Christians and Jews.
1462 Jews are expelled from Mainz following a conflict between two candidates for the archepiscopal seat.
1475 The entire Jewish community in Trent, northern Italy, is put to death on the allegation that it had murdered a boy for religious purposes.
1492 After forcing many Jews to be baptized and then referring to them as Marranos (swine), and after an Inquisition in which some 700 Marranos were burnt at the stake for showing signs of “Jewish” taint, Spain expels all Jews from the country.
1553 Cardinal Carafa instigates a public burning of copies of the Talmud and other Jewish religious works in a square in Rome.
This didn’t stop after Luther either....
1555-1559 Pope Paul IV restricts Jews to ghettos and decrees that they are to wear distinctive headgear.
1566-1572 Pope St. Pius V expels Jews from the Papal States, allowing some to remain in Rome’s ghettos and in Ancona for commercial reasons.
1592-1605 Pope Clement VIII includes a ban on all Jewish books in the expanded Index of Forbidden Books.
1826 Pope Leo XII decrees that Jews are to be confined to ghettos and their property is to be confiscated.
1858 Edgardo Mortara, 6-year old son of a Jewish family in Bologna, is abducted by the papal police and brought to Rome. He had been secretly baptized five years earlier by a domestic servant who thought he was about to die. The parents try to get the boy back, and there is a universal outcry, but Pope Pius IX rejects all petitions submitted to him.
1904 In an interview with Zionist leader Theodor Hertzl, Pope St. Pius X says: “I know, it is disagreeable to see the Turks in possession of our Holy Places. We simply have to put up with it. But to sanction the Jewish wish to occupy these sites, that we cannot do. . . The Jews have not recognized our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people. . . If you go to Palestine and your people settle there, you will find us clergy and churches ready to baptize you all”.
1919 Newly independent Poland passes a law making Sunday a compulsory day of rest in Poland. The law is intended to force Jews to observe the Christian sabbath in addition to their own.
1921 Speaking for Pope Benedict XV, a Vatican spokesman informed representatives of the Zionist Movement that they did not wish to assist “the Jewish race, which is permeated with a revolutionary and rebellious spirit” to gain control over the Holy Land.
1925 At a conference of Catholic academicians in Innsbruck, Austria, Bishop Sigismund Waitz calls the Jews an “alien people” who had corrupted England, France, Italy, and especially America.
1933 In a series of Advent sermons, Cardinal Faulhaber of Munich defends the Old Testament against Nazi attacks but emphasizes that it is not his intention to defend contemporary Jewry, saying that a distinction has to be drawn between Jews living before and after the crucifixion of Jesus.
1933 In a pastoral letter on January 23, Bishop Johannes Maria Gföllner of Linz, Austria, declares that while the radical anti-Semitism preached by Nazism is completely incompatible with Christianity, it is the right and duty of Christians to fight and break the harmful influences of Jewry in all areas of modern cultural life. The Austrian episcopate condemns the letter in December for causing racial hatred and conflict.
1933-1939 The general consensus among the Catholic papers in Poland is that Jewish influence should be reduced in all areas of life, that the Polish and Jewish communities should be separated as much as possible, and that the most desirable option is mass emigration of the Jews from Poland. St. Maximilian Kolbe is an active promoter of antisemitic literature.
1935-1936 The Polish Catholic Church gives full support to a government policy encouraging Jewish emigration from Poland.
1937 Austrian bishop Alois Hudal publishes a book defending Nazi racial ideology, supporting laws preventing a flood of Jewish immigrants, and criticizing the “Jewish” press for playing off Austrians against Germans. His book receives the support of Archbishop (later Cardinal) Theodor Innitzer of Vienna.
1939 Josef Tiso, a Catholic priest with a doctorate in theology, became president of independent Slovakia. An extremist hater of Jews, he allied Slovakia with Nazi Germany and, with strong objections from the Vatican, deported most Slovakian Jews to their deaths in the camps. He declared: “It is a Christian action to expel the Jews, because it is for the good of the people, which is thus getting rid of its pests.” Monsignor Tiso was executed after the war as a war criminal.
Breaking?
Did you know about it, beforehand?
Sorry. I just get tired of all the “Breaking” headlines. So much hyperbole from web sites. Not your fault.
Actually, no, I am not. This came from: http://beggarsallreformation.blogspot.com/search?q=on+the+jews. There's much more.
But, regardless of who originated that list, do you have any evidence that disputes those many points? Like:
You don't have to take his word; you can study history.
Hitler was a rationalist and a materialist who surrounded himself with pagans.
His remarks to confidants, as described in the Goebbels Diaries, the memoirs of Albert Speer, and transcripts of Hitler's private conversations recorded by Martin Bormann in Hitler's Table Talk, indicate anti-Christian beliefs. Goebbels wrote in 1939 that Hitler is "deeply religious, but completely anti-Christian", and in 1941 that he "hates Christianity".
Given that MWT is not a member of the Church, but rather Jewish, I don’t think he is making a denominational distinction.
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