This past January, the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Christian Unity issued a document in which Martin Luther was referred to as “a witness to the gospel.” In the very same ecumenical spirit, the Vatican now plans to include in the list of its commemorative stamps for 2017 one marking the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
After announcing its philatelic publications for 2017, The Vatican Philatelic and Numismatic Office indicated that it will issue the commemorative Reformation stamp after issuing one celebrating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Marist Brothers schools by Saint Marcelino Champagnat. The stamp commemorating the Reformation, in turn, will be followed by another one celebrating the 600th anniversary of the founding of the Diocese of Samogitia, in Lithuania, which Pope St. John Paul II visited in 1993. Some other stamps to be issued this year include one celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady of Fatima, the 300-year anniversary of our Lady of Aparecida, Brazil, the 450th anniversary of St. Francis De Sales’ birth and a very special one on the occasion of the 1,950th anniversary of the martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul.
And today we celebrate...