Numismatics : Vatican , a stamp to commemorate Lutheran reform
Vatican City - It has been 500 years since, on 31 October 1517, Augustinian friar and theologists Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. The Vatican City's Philatelic and Numismatic Office prints a commemorative stamp. Last year, in occasion of his visit to Sweden for the joint Catholic-Lutheran Commemoration of the Reformation, Pope Francis gave thanks to God for the opportunity to witness such an important event "with renewed spirit and the awareness that unity among Christians is a priority, because he said we appreciate that the things we have in common are more than those that divide us". "Lutheran and Catholics have wounded the visible unity of the Church. Theological differences he added accompanied by prejudice and conflict, and religion was exploited for political purposes. The faith we share in Jesus Christ and our baptism requires a daily conversion, thanks to which we repudiate the historic dissension and conflict that prevents the ministry of reconciliation". "We are all well aware said the Pope in another occasion that the past cannot be changed". "However, we can purify memory", banishing "deforming" resentment.
The stamp, issued for the occasion by the Philatelic Office, shows Jesus on the cross and a timeless image of the city of Wittenberg in a golden background. Kneeling penitently at the sides of the Cross, Martin Luther holds the Bible, source and destination of his doctrine, while Philip Melanchthon, theologist and friend of Martin Luther, one of the main protagonists of the reformation, holds the Augustan Confession, or Confessio Augustuana in Latin, the first official expression of the principles of Protestantism wrote by Melanchthon himself.And on 31 October, at the Church of Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome, the outgoing president of Germany's Bundestag, Norbert Lammert, will make a commemorative speech in occasion of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Reformationstag, Reformation Day, this year is a public holiday across Germany. A leading figure of the CDU party and committed Catholic, one of the most brilliant and transversally respected German politicians, Lammert, recently took part in the Ecumenical Celebration in Bochum, his city of birth, where he underlined the importance of following the path that brings the faithful closer. "Religion he said must not be a reason for division".