Reformation triggered by ‘trivial’ issue

The controversy over the sale of indulgences which led to the Reformation was “one of the most expendable” controversies in Christian history, according to the president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch.

At the Lutheran World Federation’s annual governance meeting, held in Lutherstadt Wittenberg from 15-21 June, Cardinal Koch spoke of what he called the “relatively trivial” reason that triggered the Reformation in 1517.
In the sixteenth century “people believed that they could buy heaven” by buying indulgences, he recalled. Today Catholics and Protestants were both of the opinion that redemption was an unconditional gift of God. The controversy of the indulgence trade was one of the “most expendable debates” in Christianity’s history, Koch emphasised.

He underlined the major importance of the joint Lutheran-Catholic Ecumenical Commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation at Lund in Sweden on 31 October.