Almost 500 years ago this week, the Augustinian friar Martin Luther sent his 95 Theses to Albert of Brandenburg, the Archbishop of Mainz. Though no one – least of all Luther – realised it at the time, October 31, 1517 would be remembered forever after as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
Pope Francis has gone out of his way to commemorate this occasion. On Monday, he travelled to Sweden, where he marked the start of the Reformation’s 500th anniversary year with Lutheran leaders. This joint observation of an event that split the Western Church disturbs many Catholics. They are particularly unsettled by the idea of giving thanks for Luther, whose actions led (albeit unwittingly) to the death of millions in the European Wars of Religion.
In truth, there has been little effort to assuage these concerns. Church leaders seem content to hail the Pope’s participation as “prophetic”, while failing to communicate the reasons for it to the laity. There is a danger that the papal gesture will only be properly understood by professional ecumenists.
That would be a pity, because there is a rationale for the Pope’s presence at the Reformation commemoration. It begins with Benedict XVI, who arguably knew more about Lutheranism than any pope in history. Before his election he helped to craft a joint declaration stating that Catholics and Lutherans agreed on the doctrine of justification – previously considered one of the great dividing lines of the Reformation.
As Pope, Benedict gave a landmark speech at the monastery where Luther studied, in which he identified two elements of the former friar’s legacy worth preserving. The first was Luther’s sincere struggle with the question: “How do I receive the grace of God?” The second was his “thoroughly Christocentric” spirituality.
In Sweden this week Pope Francis built on Benedict XVI’s theological work, as well as 50 years of Catholic-Lutheran dialogue. That is why he felt able to take part in the commemoration of an event that will never fail to evoke sadness in Catholics.
Both Benedict XVI and Pope Francis are both, in their different ways, forward-looking. They realise that in this emerging age of Islamist terror, hardline secularism and prevailing agnosticism Christians must stand together, despite our complex and pain-filled history. Their gaze is not so much on the past 500 years as on the next. Will some denominations that trace their roots to Luther live to see the Reformation’s 1,000th anniversary? How will the Catholic Church’s role within global Christianity change in this millennium?
We too should try to take the long view of this week’s commemorations. By attending the events in Sweden, Pope Francis has ensured that the 500th anniversary year, which has now begun, will be associated with unity, rather than division. That is no mean achievement.
If we still have reservations, we should remember that the commemoration is challenging for Protestants, too. No one could have imagined even 50 years ago that a movement that began as a protest against the papacy would mark its 500th anniversary in the presence of a pope.
Priests in Britain today officiate at more cremations than burials. There are many reasons for this, one being that cremations are often cheaper than burials, thanks to the shortage of burial plots.
But though the Church now accepts cremation as a fitting choice, and has rites that allow for cremation, one rite in particular is neglected, and that is the short rite for the burial of ashes.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that while many families opt for cremation, many fail to dispose of the ashes properly afterwards. Hence the recent instruction from the Vatican, reminding us that the ashes of the deceased are to be buried. Many Catholic churches, while they may not have a cemetery, do nevertheless have a plot of land suitable for the burial of ashes. It is common in such cases to mark each burial with a small memorial tile.
This is to be encouraged. In this way the deceased is entrusted to God and laid in consecrated ground. For human remains to be kept at home, divided up, worn in a container around the neck or scattered in a favourite place, does not constitute proper disposal, nor is it in keeping with Christian tradition.
The Vatican instruction may make it easier for parish priests to help mourners come to a proper decision about the final disposal of ashes. The Church is surely right to think that burial of ashes is not only what God wants, but is also what is best for those who mourn.
The burial of ashes marks our letting go of the departed one, our letting them journey to the next life. To keep ashes at home, as a sign of the continued presence of the deceased, is morbid and betrays a misunderstanding of what human presence is.
Human beings are, especially when we have departed this life, much more than mere ash.
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