The present times are starred by new signs, which ought to be interpreted. One of these “signs” is the commemoration of the fifth centenary of Luther’s Reformation. For the first time Catholics and Lutherans will solemnly gather in Lund, Sweden, to jointly celebrate the memory of this event. With his presence Pope Francis will place the seal on the exceptional nature of this event together with bishop Munib Younan and Rev. Martin Junge, representing the communion of 145 Churches worldwide, members of the Lutheran World Federation. Lund’s Cathedral in Sweden was chosen as the venue of the commemoration. It is the place where the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) was established 69 years ago, in 1947.
500 years have passed since, in 1517, Luther nailed on the door of the Cathedral of Wittenberg his 95 Theses publically opposing the widespread practice of the sale of indulgences.
Although historians eventually gave evidence of the fact that Luther had no intention of founding a new Church, the subsequent course of events led to a division of Western Christianity that was harbinger of conflicts, violence and even armed conflicts, whose consequences are felt still today. For this reason, until recently, Reformation centenary celebrations sparked off polemics and heated debates between the two confessions.
But this year it will be different:
on October 31 Pope Francis will travel to Sweden where the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation will hold a joint commemoration that includes an ecumenical celebration in Lund’s cathedral along with a public event in Malmo’s stadium.
Fr Angelo Maffeis, Professor in Systematic Theology, member of the International Commission on Lutheran-Catholic dialogue, explained the historical significance of this joint celebration. “I see it as a sign connected with a unique twofold recurrence, namely, the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, linked to the publication of Luther’s theses that questioned the practice of indulgences, and the 50th anniversary of Lutheran-Catholic dialogue, initiated on the wake of the Council, that became official in 1967”, said Fr Maffeis. Moreover, when new elements burst into the scene of history they are never random events. In fact, they can be best described as the result of a patient process of dialogue developed in time, starred with meetings that culminated in significant agreements, veritable milestones of the ecumenical movement, such as the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.
A different interpretation of the historical phenomena connected with the Reformation equally developed in the course of time.
“We left behind us a reading of the events that was inevitably conditioned by the confessional controversy”, Maffeis said. On the part of the Protestant Church “Luther is recognised as a Church father, who renewed Gospel proclamation when it was obscured and deformed”, while on the Catholic part “he was accused of having destroyed Church unity, driving many people into sin and heresy. Today’s interpretation is more complex and nuanced.”
Who was Luther at the time and what was the purpose of his Reformation? “Luther – said the theologian – was a monk who devoted his entire life to the study of the Scriptures. Through his studies he developed the belief that the central message of Gospel proclamation had been concealed.
Present researches highlight the fact that Luther had no intention to launch a reform process to found a new Church. His intention was to raise awareness on the need to renew the Church as it was at the time.”
However, a successive step has remained unfulfilled. In fact, experts failed to transform their researches into shared knowledge. “I am under the impression that many prejudices are still harboured at grassroots level, thus I hope that this fifth centenary of the Reformation will lead to taking this further step”, Maffeis declared.
The need for a reforming Church. “For centuries –Maffeis remarked– this term raised suspicions, for it evoked ecclesial divisions. The Second Vatican Council recovered this term and restored its legitimacy.” Those were the years of the dawning of the ecumenical movement, when it became clear that divided Christians couldn’t credibly proclaim the Gospel. Now the issue is even more “heated”, in the framework of a secularized, post-Christian Europe, where more than confessional differences, the essential, urgent problem concerns the proclamation of the Christian faith.”
The election of Pope Francis accelerated the pace, conferring a central role to the efforts of Gospel proclamation.
Pope Francis – noted the theologian – “may be less sensitive to the classical questions of theology and to the controversies discussed in the dialogue process. But I firmly believe that from this perspective his programmatic document is Evangelii guadium, containing the Church’s appeal to recover the freshness of Gospel proclamation. This commitment is shared by all Christians, so that through their faith witness they may meet the Lord even in today’s secularised world. It is our primary task, which restores a central role to the ecumenical movement”, concluded the theologian.
