"We talked about how we both recognised ourselves in what is happening to the ordinary people there and how we need to recognise our common humanity more openly" said Rt Rev Sally Foster-Fulton, the Moderator of the General Assembly.

The leaders stressed the importance of Christians uniting in today's world.

Historically the Church of Scotland, a Calvinist Presbyterian denomination, and the Catholic Church had a strained relationship.

Much of the tension stemmed from the 15th-century Catholic-Protestant Reformation.

However last year, they signed the "St Margaret's Declaration" committing to friendship and cooperation.

This declaration acknowledges past grievances and the need for forgiveness and healing.

It reflects the spirit of Saint Margaret, an 11th-century Scottish queen venerated for her Christian faith and generosity.

During the meeting, the leaders discussed their commitment to ecumenical and interfaith efforts in Scotland.

They also stressed the importance of challenging the status quo, especially regarding their Gospel commitment to the poor.

They reaffirmed their dedication to being a voice for peace in today's world.

Fragility of life

During the Vatican meeting, the pope was given a print of "Throwaway People" by artist Michael McVeigh.

The artwork reflects the vulnerability of marginalised individuals, resonating with the pope's mission to prevent such circumstances.

Foster-Fulton said the work is an "expression of the fragility of life and how easy it is to fall through the cracks."

"It is a print that I have remembered forever I said to Pope Francis, who has dedicated his life to try to make sure that does not happen, that I wanted him to have that picture. He took it and turned it over and wrote something on the back in Italian so he would remember. He was very, very taken by it" she said.

Foster-Fulton also said she and Francis discussed the escalation of violence across Israel and Palestine and the war in Ukraine.

Afterwards, Foster-Fulton and her group visited Rome's Pontifical Scots College which has been educating Catholic priests since 1616.

The seminary gave the group a presentation on the Catholic Church's vision for seminary formation and the particular way that this is put into practice in the college.

Sources

Crux Now

CathNews New Zealand

One is a 2.55-euro stamp celebrating the 450th Anniversary of Saint Francis de Sales's birth.

The other is a 1.00-euro stamp marking the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Read more

Yet, to my Roman Catholic friends, the Reformation isn't something to celebrate.

In their eyes, our admiration for Martin Luther is as misguided as holding a big party in honour of one's divorce.

They argue the Reformation ushered in a world where each individual's personal taste in interpretation became supreme, leading to the moral chaos and postmodernism that riddles the cultural landscape today.

At best, they see Protestants as limping along without the spiritual blessings God bestows through their church, yet, like anorexics, rejoicing in this near-starvation.

I readily concede that the Reformation brought costs as well as benefits.

Yet as a Lutheran, I am profoundly grateful for the sixteenth-century return to Scripture that reminded us of Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, and Solus Christus.

I deeply appreciate the Lutheran determination, demonstrated in the Book of Concord, to find and cling to biblical truth. That is why I want my Catholic friends to know three things about the event I will be celebrating on October 31.

It's Not about Individualism
Secular historians, like secular journalists writing about Pope Francis, often misunderstand religion.

Mainstream history textbooks portray Luther as someone who struck a blow for the individual by rejecting the authority of people who wanted to tell others what to believe.

As long as these historians don't peruse his actual writing, they see Luther as a pretty progressive guy by the standards of 1517.

My Catholic friends read this stuff and, quite naturally, pick up the idea that Luther's teachings led to hyper-individualism.

Yet Luther's actual theological legacy is not conducive to extreme individualism.

He intended to participate in a conversation about reforming errors that were harming the Catholic Church.

That is because he wanted to point out where individuals were going wrong by failing to submit themselves to the authority of scripture. Continue reading

• Anna Mussmann is a stay-at-home mom who writes during nap time.

"Five hundred years ago, Europe was a tinder box, it was ready to go aflame," said Martin Marty of the University of Chicago, himself a Lutheran and one of America's preeminent scholars of religion, in a recent Crux interview.

"Luther, an Augustinian friar, left his monastery and either posted by mail to the Archbishop of Mainz, or posted to the door of the church in Wittenberg in Saxony in southern Germany, 95 theses that he wanted to debate," Marty said.

"He hit exactly the points that were at issue in the hearts of so many people.

"They were all Catholics," Marty said, "and it struck their hearts, because they were struggling with the same things he was."

What that means, Marty suggested, is that despite centuries of bitter ecclesiastic rivalries, Protestants and Catholics have a common heritage, which he said has flowered in the modern ecumenical movement.

"I remember going once to a meeting of the World Council of Churches, where the topic was the nature of the unity we seek," Marty said.

"The bureaucratic typist from Geneva who sent the draft to us in the press room had said that the goal of Christian unity is that all in each place come to a ‘full committee fellowship!'"

Marty said of course, the word was supposed to be, come to a ‘fully committed fellowship' - "Today's Catholic and Lutheran leadership are both committed to finding new ways to move toward that fully committed fellowship." Continue reading

Sources

• Crux article by John L. Allen Jr., editor of Crux.
• Image: MysteryOfFaith blog

Luther may also have posted his manifesto, following academic tradition, on the door of All Saints Church near the University of Wittenberg where he taught (that he "nailed" it seems to be a myth), but in any case he did publish his ideas on the subject of indulgences in a stand against Catholic teaching on salvation, and started the second great schism in Christendom.

Five centuries later, what is the legacy of Martin Luther - to Christianity? To the world?

Luther opened up the Bible to the ordinary Christian, reminded them of the gratuitous, forgiving love of God and championed the individual conscience.

These developments would have happened anyway, and are affirmed in a general way by all denominations, but differences over the details are so critical that churches continue to divide and multiply, giving a negative witness to the Gospel in which Christ prays that "they all might be one".

The rapprochement of the last half century leaves seemingly unbridgeable gaps between Protestantism and Catholicism.

As for society in general - Western society anyway - it is marked by trends that would surely shock Luther himself. Certainly he was very sex positive, but what would he think of no-fault divorce, cohabitation and pre-marital sex, contraception, abortion, euthanasia, the normalisation of homosexuality, same-sex marriage and transgenderism? And of churches which accept all or most of these things?

Would Luther recognise his doctrine of the individual conscience in a contemporary individualism (acting collectively where necessary) that constantly claims new rights on the basis of "what I feel is right for me" - and wants to force other consciences to affirm its claims, no matter how irrational?

Well, perhaps he would, or should.

Nearly a century ago the French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain identified Luther as the man who "discovered the self", thus preparing the way for modern individualism and the trends it has spawned. Continue reading

Sources

• MercatorNet article by Carolyn Moynihan, deputy editor of MercatorNet
• Image: The Out-of-Body Travel Foundation

For most of Church history, worshipers stood during the celebration of Mass.

There did exist a few scattered benches for the elderly to sit on, but in general the nave of the church was entirely void of places to sit.

This made practical sense, especially when kneeling became a common posture of the laity.

Additionally, in medieval churches the pulpit was typically placed in the middle of the church, apart from the sanctuary.

This meant the laity had to physically walk over to the pulpit to listen to the priest's very brief homily.

There was so much movement during Mass that no one, including the priest, ever had a chance to sit down.

Protestants introduced church pews

Pews were essentially non-existent until the Protestant Reformation.

In most Protestant churches the emphasis during worship services was not the many liturgical movements, but the sermon given by a preacher.

The interpretation of the Bible by the local pastor was a chief focus of Protestant liturgies and led to long discourses at the pulpit.

Pews were gradually introduced over time and were especially popular in English churches.

On account of the expensive nature of pews, individuals and families would purchase pews and guard them with their lives.

In some cases they even constructed "pew boxes" to protect them, locking them up so that nobody else could use them. Unfortunately there even arose various legal battles over pews as individuals regarded their seats as personal property.

With the advent of pews, homilies became longer in Catholic churches.

Later on when churches could afford the installation of pews, they still relied on parishioners for additional income and began to "rent" pews.

This practice was brought over to the United States from England and was adopted by the Catholic Church.

Pew rentals were very common in Catholic churches and even authorised by the Third Council of Baltimore as a type of fundraiser.

Catholics, primarily in England and the United States, introduced pews in their churches after Protestants started using them.

Homilies became longer in Catholic churches and sitting was more common during various parts of the Mass. Continue reading

• Philip Kosloski is a husband and father of five, and staff writer at Aleteia. He also writes for The Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network (Apostleship of Prayer).

Zimmerman is a Sister of the Precious Blood, and a professor of liturgy from Dayton, Ohio.

Although the Catholic Church has been involved in a number of divisions over the millennia - including the Protestant Reformation - it has come a long way to "restoring unity among all Christians" over the past 50 years, Zimmerman says.

Restoring Christian unity was the Second Vatican Council's reason for distributing Unitatis redintegratio, its 1964 Decree on Ecumenism, she says, adding:

"Catholic participation at jubilee events would acknowledge the changes the Church has made since the Second Vatican Council".

Some of the work the church has done to bridge divisions in the past 50 years has resulted in changes to Catholic doctrine and worship, Zimmerman says.

The main aim of these changes was to achieve greater lay participation in the Catholic Church liturgy.

At the same time, long-held divisions were also able to close between Catholics and many Protestant churches as we acknowledge we share similar forms of worship

Zimmerman cites baptism as an example.

Many celebrate baptism with water and "the trinitarian formula, which says:

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19).

This means if a Protestant wants to become a Catholic (or vice versa) so long as they have been baptised according to this formula they need not be re-baptised.

Zimmerman also points out that some Protestant churches also believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist (though they may express this differently from Catholics).

Many have also adopted their Eucharistic prayers from the Catholic liturgy.

Furthermore, changes brought about by Sacrosanctum Concilium (The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy) mean Catholics and Protestants hear the same readings on Sundays.

Regardless of tenets of faith or doctrine, though, Zimmerman says "the primary purpose of prayer/worship is not to expound tenets of faith/doctrine but to give God glory, praise, and thanks".

Source:

• Crux
• Image: YouTube

It has been a cause of some concern and consternation for many Catholics to have learned that there will be Catholic (even papal) participation in various events connected to this anniversary. What could be celebrated? The break-up of Catholic unity? The demise of Christendom? The impetus for rationalism and secularism?

To commemorate, perhaps, but surely not to celebrate. Even many serious Protestant clergy and theologians have insisted that one must not celebrate something that brought on such dire (and probably undesired, unforeseen) consequences. To commemorate would necessarily mean studying the causes and the unfolding of events - learning from the errors and repenting of the sins of any and all that rent the seamless garment of Christ.

This is no more and no less than what the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council urged and what St. John Paul II often referred to as "the healing of memories." Which means genuine honesty. That honesty was carried on in spades at the Council of Trent and in the Counter-Reformation, both of which admitted that true problems had crept into the Church and needed correction.

Since Luther is such a pivotal character in the drama of the sixteenth century, it behooves all to put him under the microscope for closer observation. To be sure, Luther was a brilliant theologian. He was also deeply imbued with the understanding of the absolute holiness of God, the centrality of Christ in the work of our salvation, and the concomitant need for the Church to be the spotless Bride of the Redeemer which St. Paul calls her. Continue reading

Sources

• The Catholic World Report, article by Reverend Peter M.J. Stravinskas, the editor of the The Catholic Response.
• Image: bio.