When Pope Francis visits Sweden this coming October 31-November 1, he will participate in ecumenical events that mark the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. The two-day, two city trip will include an ecumenical prayer service in Lund Cathedral and a public event at Malmö, and a Catholic Mass on Nov 1. Additional events on the pope’s schedule will be announced later by the Vatican.
The trip is jointly sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Lutheran World Federation. The events will highlight 50 years of ecumenical dialogue between Catholics and Lutherans. The celebration, in which Francis will participate, is being structured around the themes of “thanksgiving, repentance and commitment to common witness.”
“The aim is to express the gifts of the Reformation and ask for forgiveness for division perpetuated by Christians from the two traditions,” they say. The prayer will be based on a recently published Catholic-Lutheran “Common Prayer” liturgical guide.
The event in the Malmö Arena will focus on the “common witness and service of Catholics and Lutherans in the world.” The event, which will host 10,000 people, will include highlights of joint efforts by the Lutheran World Federation’s World Service and the Catholic Charity Caritas Internationalis around the world, including care for refugees, peacebuilding and advocacy for climate change.
The historic joint event will make history when both Catholic and Lutheran leaders visit the two cities “to encourage all of us to go further on the road towards Christian unity.”
The full-blown Protestant Reformation began on October 31, 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of All Saints Church in Wittemberg. The ecumenical event, which would be considered to be an abomination by Martin Luther, will commemorate the beginning of the reformation one year before the 500th anniversary.
Pope Francis has made great strides in maturing the ecumenical movement during his pontificate. He has reached out to Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans, Pentecostals, Baptists, Waldenses and others.
“Of the 2.3 billion Christians in the world today, 1.2 billion are Roman Catholics and 600-700 million are Protestants of various denominations and groupings, together representing more than three-quarters of the total Christian population.” Getting Protestants to join Catholics in ecumenical dialogue, social activism and ministry limits their protest to the papal falsehoods and blasphemies and leads them ever closer to Rome’s aim of uniting them around the sacramental table in full, visible, sacramental union.
The deadly wound of Revelation 13:3 has two aspects, the religious and the political. The political deadly wound can never be fully healed until the religious deadly wound has been healed. Pope Francis is working very diligently to re-unite Catholics, Evangelicals (as Protestants like to be called), Orthodox and other Christian groups under the leadership of Rome.
“And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” Revelation 13:3