Remembering the Reformation—with the pope
"A commemoration, not a celebration." What does this mean?
On October 31 in Lund, Sweden, Pope Francis will take part in a commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation—a year before the official anniversary in 2017. That a pope would participate in a commemoration of Luther’s posting of his 95 Theses on October 31, 1517—the event usually seen as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation—is a sign of how far ecumenical relations have come. But the path to the commemoration has had its bumps, and the event is significant both for what it is and what it isn’t.
Sponsored by the Lutheran World Federation and the (Lutheran) Church of Sweden, the commemoration will consist of a prayer service in the Lutheran cathedral in Lund and an event at an arena in nearby Malmö.
Earlier commemorations of 1517 were exclusively Protestant and often strongly anti-Catholic. Talks began in 2007 between the Lutheran World Federation and the Vatican about how the 2017 anniversary might be genuinely ecumenical.
