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, dont 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."
“The same delusion can have many names...”
I suppose they all end up the same way, but, no these are distinct paths to Hell.
And since you want to find someone to blame, you should not leave out Rome against the Jews.
See above, by God’s grace.
In fairness, the Papists were also very hostile to Jews at the time, and the Jews at that time were also praying in synagogues for the death and enslavement of Gentiles, and theirs Rabbis claimed that Christ was burning in a vat of feces for all eternity. The Ultra- Orthodox Jews still to this day spit on Gentiles when they enter their neighborhoods. And they don't do any sort of work, either, but live off the state.
Luther's reaction to this, however, wasn't racial, since he used Jewish converts to make his arguments.
I don’t thank your “god” for anything.
I think you're better than that, FRamigo. I'll let it go.
Nah. This is your spin. Your Vatican and its stamp department apparently doesn't even agree with your post.
Perhaps you should consult your Pope first and then get back to us.
Hundreds of millions of souls in heaven now by the grace of God - through the recovery of His Glorious Gospel, which he used flawed sinner Father Luther to recover.
Again, I think you are better than that remark, ebb tide.
As a believer in Christ, I certainly won't respond in kind and not even in my heart.
I will point out you have just "made it personal" - a violation of FR Religion Forum guidelines.
Thanks for the link.
I didn’t realize Jews had been so persecuted.
The author of that, Theodore Shoebat, strikes me as a kook.
How is what Luther did anything different than what you are doing against this pope? Have you ever read the ‘Song of Moses’? Their ‘rock’ is NOT our ‘Rock’? Hint, John wrote those that overcome will be singing the ‘Song of Moses’. Do you know the ‘song’?
I don't know...
If their Pope became a FReeper; an awful lot of their posts would be considered personal; I’ll bet!
“The Ultra- Orthodox Jews still to this day spit on Gentiles when they enter their neighborhoods”
1. There is no such thing as “ultra-Orthodox” outside the pages of Haaretz.
2. With one exception*, I have never seen hostility, even in old city Jerusalem, against Gentiles who are modestly dressed and polite. Now, if you show up wearing short-shorts and a bikini top and expect to not get hassled at the Western Wall, then you are in for a surprise. People who would not dress like tramps in their church at home somehow think it is OK to show up where people are praying abroad dressed as tramps. It’s rude and will probably get a rude response.
* The exception being the anti-Zionist Satmar Hasidic group who are hateful to everyone, except the Imans in Iran. Of course, they are most hateful to other Jewish people.
3. Since the days of Maimonides in 1135 CE, Christianity has been deemed by basically all Jewish people an acceptable religion for Gentiles, as it certainly conforms to the Noahadic laws, accepts the Torah as true, and points towards the Mosiach, however (from the Jewish perspective) prematurely.
Not to mention attacking women and children who enter Men Only areas! You're minimizing the reality of things.
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