FOUR hundred and ninety-five years ago, a Catholic priest named Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany.

What he made public were his 95 grouses with the Roman Catholic Church back in that time, with much of it directly related to the Papacy; and other issues, some of which were personal. A very dedicated and devoted priest, Dr Luther’s hands, it was reported, used to tremble when lifting up the Precious Body and Blood while he celebrated Mass at his parish church.

His hands trembled because he did not believe in transubstantiation; they trembled because he had a growing hatred for the same church and her “corrupt” leaders which he had to serve back in those days.

Reformation was the ideal answer. Revising its ways and practices were the options set out by Dr Luther. His actions and those famous 95 Theses started a whole new wave of change in Europe — wars, fighting, you name it.

The Protestant Reformation brought Europe to her knees, and Catholic leaders scrambling to grapple with what was happening. There were no systems in place for the church back then to deal with criticism in a very orderly fashion. The church reacted to Luther’s assertions and grouses rather hostilely, by excommunicating him from the Church of Rome.

This caused another chain of events. He became married to a Catholic nun who left the Church, too. Her name was Katherina von Bora.

But while many may have their own criticism of Luther, he was a true Catholic in many senses of the word. He loved Our Lady, and wrote several hymns about her. He loved devotions to Mary. Call him a betrayer, revolutionary, liar, coward, even an imposter, Luther’s efforts did change holy Mother Church and brought her back to the right ways.

His new wave brought fresh light, and opened the windows of the church so that fresh air could have entered. Luther’s intervention restored some amount of decency to the church and her leaders, as there was much wrongdoing and betrayal, as well as deep-seated corruption back in those days in the Roman Catholic Church.
I am a former Lutheran, and have been Lutheran all my life, until about 6 years ago. I have read and heard a lot about the Reformation from both sides: the Catholic and Protestant standpoints. My view is a balanced one. I do not despise Luther for his actions. I, in fact, laud them. They were much needed.

Should the church have reacted against Luther the way she did? Absolutely not!

However, the Protestant Reformation also resulted in 10,000 Christian denominations that we have today in Christendom. How united are they all is a good question. That is perhaps the only negative thing that came out of the Reformation, and which I really do not like, especially since the establishment of individual denominations in this religion has compromised the unity that Christ had for his Bride, the Church.

Luther wrote a very powerful hymn that we used to sing on every Reformation Sunday (the Sunday closest to October 31 [Reformation Day], “A mighty Fortress is our God”. The man was a powerful hymn writer. I have never heard us sing this in the Catholic Church. It is, after all, a Protestant hymn.

Reformation Sunday sermons back in my old church were more or less focused on Luther and his efforts. The sermons also pointed out the many errors of Rome back in the day. Today, we in Guyana really do not hear about the Lutheran denomination among us. We know that the church exists here and has a proud history of being the first Church in Guyana. Since 1743, it brought this religion to our shores.  Perhaps the Lutheran Church — as one of my former pastors used to say — is the best kept secret in Guyana.