“Most of historians think that indulgence theses billposting” on the door of the “Schlosskirche”, Wittenberg, by Martin Luther “didn’t happen in the way it has been known until now; on the other hand, Martin Luther sent his theses to the local bishop, and the publication of his indulgence theses was regarded as a call for debate among the learned”. This morning, in Rome, those words were spoken by Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, at the Catholic-Lutheran International Meeting promoted by the Pontifical Atheneum of St. Anselm, in preparation of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation (1517/2017), which this year is officially opening on 31 October. It is a tradition to mark the beginning of the Lutheran Reform on 31 October 1517, in memory of indulgence theses billposting in Wittenberg. However, the Cardinal asked Catholic and Lutheran participants in the Roman meeting not to link commemoration of 1517 with this event because it would imply the risk of putting the Reformation “inevitably in the light of dispute and conflict” (as happened in past commemorations, unfortunately). In this respect, Koch spoke about a book published by Erwin Iserlohs in 1962, with the title (in German) “Luther theses billposting: fact or legend?”. In the text, the historian recalls that Luther sent his theses to the local bishop to be debated by the “learned”. “Therefore, 2017 is meant to recall the period in which the Reformer and the Catholic Church were still together – says the person in charge of the Vatican ministry for ecumenism – and the unity of the Church had not been broken, yet, since Martin Luther was still in communion with the Catholic Church. That means that 2017 may be celebrated just through ecumenical communion”. Therefore, the Cardinal asked everyone to look to Martin Luther – as Benedict XVI did, in Erfurt, in 2011 – for his “passionate search for God”. And he added: “In the wake of Luther, today the ecumenical service has to witness the presence of living God in our secularised societies”. “Today, if Lutherans and Catholics together focus on the centrality of the question of God and Christocentrism, it will be possible to commemorate the Reformation in an ecumenical way, and not just in a pragmatic way, but in the deep meaning of faith in Christ crucified and resurrected, which Martin Luther emphasised in a new way”.