Germany Catholics wary about major Luther festivities

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dale_M
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I think you’ll find that the Lutheran churches in the US will be celebrating this anniversary in a big way, too.
 
Rand_Al_Thor said:
Well, that is alarming that Catholics would want to celebrate the life and works of a heretic who ripped the Church apart.
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I don’t think there is any danger of Germany’s Catholic Church celebrating Luther’s actions. Obviously, a celebration would be wrong. Bishop Feige expressed wariness regarding such things.

However, I think some kind of joint commemoration is appropriate. Without diminishing our different understanding of events, it would be good to reach out and affirm what unites us.
 
We could probably practice it in ways similar to the Eastern Rites: having a large fast before the Feast. Essentially, in preparation for All Saints, we have a day to pray for Christian unity, to pray for the undoing of the Reformation. It could even turn into a miniature “Triduum” about the Church (Oct. 31, we pray for the unity of the Church on earth; Nov. 1, we remember the saints who constantly intercede on our behalf; Nov. 2, we pray for the Church in Purgatory.) And apparently it also has precedence with the East, in that they celebrate the anniversaries of certain Councils (like the “Triumph of Orthodoxy” Day commemorating the end of Nicea II); but it would be more penitential.

my random thoughts as a former Protestant.
-A.M.T. Fisher
 
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