â??Lutherans and Catholics are on the way to greater unity."
And that is perhaps the main reason why commemorations have begun a full year before the actual 500th anniversary of Lutherâ??s â??Ninety-five Theses.â? On Monday, Pope Francis joined Lutheran church leaders in Sweden, a country that had banned Catholic convents until the 1970s, to launch the celebrations. The pope expressed his hope for further reconciliation with the worldwide Lutheran church.
I spoke with Mr. Marty at United Lutheran Church in Oak Park, Ill., just outside of Chicago, where he had come to reflect on the five centuries since the â??Ninety-five Thesesâ? were published. The â??Ninety-five Theses,â? he says, were revolutionary in their contention that repentance â??cannot be understood as sacramental penanceâ?¦performed under the ministry of priests,â? but Mr. Marty maintains they were also just the tinder in a conflagration that had long been building.
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