https://international.la-croix.com/news/opening-the-year-of-luther/4141?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=e-mail&utm_content=02-11-2016&utm_campaign=newsletter__crx_lci&PMID=3d4bff6e21bd8a4c42e60d5186400d8e
Opening the Year of Luther The celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation began in several countries on Monday and will last for the whole of 2017. Dominique Greiner France November 2, 2016 What gesture could possibly better exemplify the great ecumenical progress that has been made between Catholics and Lutherans since Vatican II than the fact the Pope Francis was invited to Lund in Sweden, where the Lutheran World Federation was founded in 1947, to inaugurate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation? In order to arrive here, however, many obstacles had to be removed and reassurance given to all those on both the Catholic and Protestant sides, who feared that the arrival of the pope would trivialize the significance of the Reformation and the weight of the suffering inflicted and received by each party over the course of five centuries of separation. While not ignoring the heavy hand of history, the common declaration signed by Pope Francis and Bishop Munib Younan, president of the Lutheran World Federation, insists more on the path followed together for 50 years and invites us to pursue efforts of dialogue and cooperation.
