Earlier this week, I heard from friends in Italy about a rumored Vatican postage stamp that would feature none other than the great-grand heresiarch himself, Martin Luther. Unable to make time to dig into it myself — and having heard some trepidation that it was, perhaps, a false report — I let it slip off my radar screen.
Until this afternoon, when I saw that Jan Bentz of LifeSiteNews posted a breaking story on precisely that:
The Vatican office charged with issuing stamps, known as the Philatelic and Numismatic Office, confirmed Tuesday to LifeSiteNews that Luther, who broke away from the Catholic Church in a schism 500 years ago, will be celebrated with a postage stamp in 2017. The office is in charge of the annual commission of stamps, coins, and other commemorative medals.
The Vatican regularly issues such memorabilia for special events, including papal trips and holy years. Honoring Luther and the Protestant Reformation is an unlikely choice, trumping other significant events in the Catholic Church such as the 100-year anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady of Fatima and the 300-year anniversary of our Lady of Aparecida, Brazil.
Major events such as Christmas, Easter, the Holy Year of Mercy, and the World Meeting of Families have also merited a commemorative stamp. In the time before a Papal election, when the seat of Peter is vacant, the Philatelic and Numismatic office issues a “Sede Vacante” stamp.
Usually if individuals are commemorated on stamps they are saints, such as Teresa of Calcutta, John Paul II, and Pope John XXIII, who most recently were honored with stamps.
While the Vatican has in the past collaborated with other national post offices to create stamps that are not of explicitly religious content, such as Charlie Chaplain or the fall of the Berlin wall, the Luther stamp has an undeniable religious connotation linked with much hostility to the Catholic Church.
Having been condemned as a heretic by Pope Leo X in Exsurge Domine (1520), and having leveled his own catalog of vulgar deprecations at Rome, it seemed as though the matter was settled. We didn’t like Luther, and he didn’t like us.
Never underestimate the power of ecumania, I guess.
It seems apropos to quote something from the aforementioned papal bull, which, if one didn’t know better, could almost be describing the current goings on in Rome:
Let all this holy Church of God, I say, arise, and with the blessed apostles intercede with almighty God to purge the errors of His sheep, to banish all heresies from the lands of the faithful, and be pleased to maintain the peace and unity of His holy Church.
For we can scarcely express, from distress and grief of mind, what has reached our ears for some time by the report of reliable men and general rumor; alas, we have even seen with our eyes and read the many diverse errors. Some of these have already been condemned by councils and the constitutions of our predecessors, and expressly contain even the heresy of the Greeks and Bohemians. Other errors are either heretical, false, scandalous, or offensive to pious ears, as seductive of simple minds, originating with false exponents of the faith who in their proud curiosity yearn for the world’s glory, and contrary to the Apostle’s teaching, wish to be wiser than they should be. Their talkativeness, unsupported by the authority of the Scriptures, as Jerome says, would not win credence unless they appeared to support their perverse doctrine even with divine testimonies however badly interpreted. From their sight fear of God has now passed.
Unbelievable. What next . . . a stamp commemorating Judas Iscariot? Perhaps Caiaphas?
Don’t give them any ideas!
Lol
Probably Ghandi and Mohammed.
Nah, saint john paul the great (!11!!!1!) already commemorated Ghandi at his funeral, calling for a new era, a new world order. Video is on the you tubes.
And the scandal marches on…
This gives new meaning to the term ‘Junk Mail’
LOL! I like your style, Fr. RP.
Oh wow… just wow… It’s all I got right now.
They’re just laughing at us now.
Well we can at least tell them where to stick it.
Owww! Good one.
I wonder if there will be any roaring from Santa Marta accusing purchasers of this novelty item as being pharisaical philatelists?
He who laughs last …
This progressive Pope is as destructive as Luther, so why not give the arch heretic a stamp.
Francis is far worse, affecting the whole world versus Germany and northern Europe.
Indeed. How long Lord, must we endure? How long?
This year should be his last year, by the 100th anniversary of Fatima.
What about stamps for those great and ruinous false prophets Adolf Hitler, Karl Marx, and Mahomet ?
Sorry J., scratch Option 3. No images allowed…unless of course, you’re referring to St. Alphonsus de Liguori’s pet cat whom he called by the same name.
This will make it much easier for people to know which “side” to choose after the Cardinals take the next step.
Does it? As Catholics we believe ”extra ecclesiam nulla salutis”, no salvation outside the Catholic church. Although the Cardinals are 100% right in this matter, I still believe that we have to hang on to the Church. Christ himself has promised that the Gates of Hell will not prevail over it. Visions of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, especially on false church rising and confusion of two popes seem very timely. She was of the impression that the false church would depart from the true Roman Catholic church, taking with it much of the property etc. However, after this she saw a new springtime, with flourishing vocations in the once again united one, true, Holy and apostolic Roman Catholic church.
I have felt so many times like leaving and going over to Orthodox church, mainly because of bad priests sometimes announcing even heresy from the pulpit (which would unfortunately line up nicely with PF doctrines). Not to mention the times when the sermon has nothing to do with the Gospel reading at hand, or teaching the catechism or is otherwise empty of content.. However, when ever we have prayed about this together with my husband, we have always come to the conclusion that we must take up this cross and carry it.
Agreed – many times over. Blessed Anne saw then what we are going to be living soon. Even now, we pray for the pope because he is the pope, not because he is teaching Catholic doctrine, but schism is already here, it’s just not open and public. In our home, we follow the Truth. If the pope speaks the Truth, we follow him. If he speaks his own personal and confused opinion, we ignore what he says and continue to pray for him *because* he is the pope, not because he is right.
He who thought of this should be declared an Apostate for suggesting Anyone would issue a stamp for an Apostate like Luther. Are you serious Really. Schism time for the RC faith to be sure.
No money for Peter’s Pence until at least the next pope!
Absolutely no surprise to me. The heretics are consistent, are they not?
“In the time before a Papal election, when the seat of Peter is vacant, the Philatelic and Numismatic office issues a “Sede Vacante” stamp.” They might want to reissue this one, the way things are going.
The following comment was made by the commenter Notung at the Lifesite article :
“Maybe they should start issuing that “Sede Vacante” stamp now, because it doesn’t sound like there is a Catholic in office at the Vatican.”
He nailed it.
Whatever…..sigh.
Why not? Luther’s everything that Francis loves; anti-Catholic, foul-mouthed and heretical.
It’s ‘rigid” Catholic “doctors of the law” whom he loathes.
And the “lazy” Catholics who do not “grow” with the time.
And the ‘lazy’ Catholics who don’t GROW AWAY FROM THE FAITH, eh?
“Why not? Luther’s everything that Francis loves; anti-Catholic, foul-mouthed and heretical.”
And mentally unsound. And forerunner of the antichrist.
I have always wondered the reason for the mental ‘unsoundness’. If people know anything about mental illness, they know that it’s caused from a ‘brain chemistry disorder’. This said, I have read several exorcist Priests that have stated that between 1/4 and 1/3 of patients in mental hospitals actually need DELIVERANCE……….something to ponder.
He was a wayward catholic monk from Augustinian order who could not live up to his vows. He also seems to have had issues with Real Presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist, given that despite some Lutherans tell so they do not believe in transubstantiation, rather to consubstantiation which is definitely not the same.
I am a former Lutheran who swam the Tiber 2007. I am appalled by the winds of protestantism coming from Vatican these days. Given that this year is centennial of Fatima, 300 years from founding of Freemasons as well as 500 years from Luther nailing his heretical theses to Wittenberg cathedral door, I expect something will be happening soon. Jesus promised that Gates of Hell will not prevail over his Church. Our Lady of Fatima told us that devil’s final battle will be of Marriage and Family. Hang on to your rosaries and remember that the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph in the end!!!
Coprophagia in it’s purest form, just keep feeding it to us…thanks Francis the talking mule.
This Pope has lost his mind,Francis is a heretic,he needs to be run out of Rome on a rail an a boot up his rear end.
Let Our Lord do it. He’s really good at it. In the meanwhile: pray.
1 Change “mind” to “faith”
2 assume he ever had a faith to lose
Then I agree with you.
Whew! You scared me. Just as long as it’s not Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre!!!
PIUS
THE
TENTH
PATCH
Brer bishops
Brer priests
And brer people of god
Dialogue, collaborate
To sacrifice just seems odd.
Brer mother of ten cried,
“I assist tried and trued.”
Brer people of god cried,
“Chill out
Take a lude.”
Brer priest said,
“Ms. Brer come on smile
Serve with me
The True Faith, let pass,
Make a mess – harmony!”
With these words
Brer mother got sick
And threw up
So brer priest urged her, “Go
If you can’t drink our cup.”
“So you’re urgin’ I go?”
And her head she did scratch,
“Jus’ please don’t throw me
In no Pius
The Tenth Patch!!”
But brer priest
Flung brer mother
Out the door shut the latch
And forced her to land
In a Pius the Tenth Patch.
So sacrilegious celebration
Is given the nod
By brer bishops
Brer priests
And brer people of god
But high on a hill
Brer mother of ten
Is singin’ and kickin’
Her heels
Up again…
“I was born and raised
In a Pius the Tenth Patch
Known as Catholic Church
And there still ain’t
No match!!!”
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5961c7bd35c77ae677ab965e5af76c8ac07dd9eaa38a73e4edfffa25f32f2dea.jpg
Since Jorge will celebrate Luther with a stamp, isn’t this celebrating the heresies that Luther promoted? Why can’t we remove Jorge? I don’t understand this!
Got an army? That’s why it will take Our Lady’s solution – the consecration of Russia before or after they invade Rome to clear the heretics out of the Vatican – and the miraculous conversion of Russia sometime afterward.
How will the consecration of Russian take place with Francis? He doesn’t care about the Scriptures, canon law nor the catechism. Oh I see, after Francis is gone. But that will be too late. I do have a solution but it requires people to have faith. The only way you can convert the world is through simple theology and story telling.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/03671e9a7343d43dcd6de6c9ea938a579a9cdd4b75cdab199a770dbec5a1ee0b.jpg
It is sheer lunacy in every sense of the word. Let’s commemorate Julian the Apostate too! While we’re at it! Why not celebrate every anti-Catholic figure because we don’t believe in anything! Except the Pope’s latest slurred, seemingly drunken, speech against all those rigid Catholics. Because obviously the you don’t have to be Catholic to be the Pope!
I feel nothing but horror and disgust. It’s laughable but I can’t laugh. It must offend the heavens so greatly! What ordinary Catholic can ‘fail to be offended?!
There is very little that ordinary Catholics can do but the good Lord in Heaven has all the power in the Universe and He does not like to be poked in the eye. Ask any Sodom/Gomorrah citizen – if you can find any.
The vast majority of ordinary Catholics have no idea what is going on. They don’t read any truly Catholic news source, and even EWTN and their NC Register give only occasional coverage to these issues, usually in sanitized form. But I’d guess 80% or more of even those who attend the NO Mass regularly don’t even watch or listen to EWTN or Catholic radio, so their “news” comes from the usual secular suspects. And we all know where that leads, viz: yet another poll out yesterday (per Rorate Caeli) finding that 87% of Americans think PF is wonderful.
I can’t give you enough upticks for this.
I attended a Pro-life meeting (in England) last week. Two (of the five of us who were there) thought he is great and didn’t know anything about the “forgotten great of Italy” incident.
You are correct that the vast majority of ‘ordinary’ Catholic laity are not aware of any of this (the synods, Amoris, the dubia letter, the various other things going on).
What is really scary, however, is that if they were made aware, many and perhaps most (at least in USA) would say “Hey, that’s great. I’m glad that the Pope is finally updating some of these harmful, obsolete rules and restrictions.”
Yes, I think that’s unfortunately true.
p.s.– I had lunch yesterday with a good friend who is a Mormon, but who has great respect for the Catholic Church. He told me he is appalled at what PF has been saying and doing, and that PF “doesn’t look very Catholic to me.”
Truly Satan has taken over the Vatican.
“5.3 magnitude #quake near L’Aquila at 10.26am. @Pontifex giving weekly general audience at the time.” Edward Pentin(@EdwardPentin). Maybe the Lord is sending them an answer? They are all scoundrels!
Yes more info here http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/18/europe/italy-earthquake-rome-amatrice/index.html
The big one is coming.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/48f0443369a90c3621ed490112a5f8b330ed7b14589e321613c03fcaac456ce1.png
If there were any doubt…
http://www.ilpostalista.it/emissioni2016/vaticano/programma2017.pdf
No money to Novus Ordoland!
Well, what a surprise. Yeah, didn’t see this one coming (he said sarcastically). Now if it were me, I would have gone with an image of Our Lady of Fatima crushing Luther’s head. But of course, that wouldn’t be nice! Yeah well, the Protty’s have that hideous exhibit in Estonia (once known as Mary’s Land) so we can have our little stamp. Well, maybe also a large statue in the Vatican as well, just to rub it in!
Maybe we can get a faithful Catholic at il Posto Vaticano to rig the printing press so the resulting stamp will feature a nice fiery background and Luther screaming in anguish.
Hundreds of millions damned for eternity because of this devil and the Vatican thinks he’s a good guy. Rome really and truly has been taken over by the enemy.
Yes, and wait for the Pope to show us how “humble” he is with his angry, red face! Well, it is the Octave of Prayer for the Unity of Christians, which means in my case praying for the heretics and schismatics to return to the One Church of Christ.
There will enter into the ‘Church’ a man of iniquity, who opposes himself to Christ, and who will bring into her interior the abomination of desolation, thus bringing to fulfillment the horrible sacrilege, of which the prophet Daniel has spoken. (MT 24,15)
I think Elvis might be in the building.
It all really seems to be speeding up in 2017 doesn’t it? Barely past the halfway mark in January and already we have a heretical Bishops statement in supposedly Catholic Malta, and heretic postage stamps planned from the Vatican itself.
I thought wasn’t even a Christian, at least that what I’ve read in journals covering the work scholars of German such as Theobald Beer.
I think by now, any well learned Roman Catholic suspects that Jorge is shooting for a ‘One World Religion.’
Cantate Luthifero canticum novum; quia horribilia fecit. Yes indeed 🙁 The Bull condemning 41 of Luther’s errors was Exsurge Deus – “O God, arise”; a reference to Psalm 68/69: “Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered”. Very appropriate.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exsurge_Domine
The Bull of excommunication was Decet Romanum Pontificem:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decet_Romanum_Pontificem
Lutheranism has no place in the Church.
What the LCMS thinks of the Papacy:
http://www.lcms.org/doctrine/doctrinalposition#anti-christ
http://www.lcms.org/faqs/lcmsviews#pope
This is as ridiculous as the UK Royal Mail issuing a stamp in honor of George Washington.
I really am stunned and so angry. Pope Piux XI and Pope Leo XIII will be turning in their graves. This really is a new church…I saw the Pope’s message a few days ago to a “Christian” gathering in America. He clearly stated that we are all one! – The question: Is the Pope Catholic? used to be rhetorical!
All together now….
Te Lutherum damnamus, te hereticum confitemur.
Te errorum patrem omnis terra detestatur.
Tibi omnes Angeli, tibi coeli et universe potestates,
Tibi clerici et laici incessabili voce proclamant:
Totus, totus, totus blasphemus in Deum Sabaoth.
Pleni sunt coeli et terra horrendae miseriae tuae.
Te odiosus tyrannorum gladius,
Te hypocritarum damnabilis numerus,
Te fornicatorum adulterinus laudat exercitus,
Patrem universae imanitatis.
Venenosum tuum dictum et perversum documentum;
Falsum quoque per te tui recepiunt spiritum.
Tu Rex iniquae Sectae.
Tu patris Antichristi sempiternus es filius.
Tu ad perdendos homines non horruisti sanctae religionis habitum.
Tu, destructo veritatis fundamento, aperuisti sequentibus tuis portas inferorum.
Tu ad dexteram Luciferi sedebis in perpetuis poenis.
Tu Luther crederis in ignem esse iturus.
Te ergo, quaesumus, discupulis suis subveni, quos falso errore inbuisti.
Aeterna cave cum ipsis flamma comburi.
Salvum fac populum tuum quem erroribus tuis decepisti.
Et maledic hereditati tuae.
Et erige eos, exterge eos usque in aeternum.
Per singulos dies maledicimus te.
Et damnamus nomen tuum in saeculum, et in saeculum saeculi.
Dignare, O Luther, tempore isto a peccato tuo exire!
Miserere tui, O Luther, miserere tui.
Fiat iustitia Dei super tuos, quemadmodum speraverunt in te.
In te, Luther, qui sperabit confundetur in aeternum.
Go here for the English: http://www.fisheaters.com/forums/index.php?topic=3447612.0
I will offer up an entire fifteen-decade Rosary for the person who can get me the polyphonic setting of this as an MP3 or in some other medium. I have a high degree of moral certitude that such a thing exists.
This is wrong from every point of view imaginable. We have to wonder if the Holy Spirit is punishing us for decades of falling away from the faith.
“Saint Michael Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray.”
God help us.