Pope Francis apologizes to Waldensian community

[하토브]

Pope Francis apologizes to Waldensian community

The pope has asked for forgiveness on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church for its historic treatment of a group of Protestants who sprang up in northern Italy. The Waldensian Church still has some 45,000 followers.

Pope Francis made the plea for forgiveness on the first ever visit by a pontiff to a Waldensian temple, declaring the persecution of the minority as "un-Christian."

The Waldensian Church has some 45,000 members - the majority in Italy's northern Piedmont region, with some 15,000 living in Latin America.

Speaking on Monday, the second day of his visit to Piedmont, Francis said he could not fail to feel sad about the "disputes and violence committed in the name of one's faith."

"On behalf of the Catholic Church, I ask for your forgiveness," he said. "I ask for your forgiveness for the un-Christian, even inhuman attitude and behavior we had against you. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, forgive us."

'Crossing a wall'

The pope's speech was greeted with warm applause with the temple's pastor, Eugenio Bernardini, thanking Francis for "crossing a wall erected eight centuries ago, when our church was accused of heresy and excommunicated."

The small movement was founded in the 12th century by Peter Waldo, a wealthy businessman from Lyon, France. Waldo preached simplicity and railed against the material excesses of the powerful Catholic Church. As the movement grew it came into increasing conflict with the Vatican, and Waldo was excommunicated.

The Waldensians were formally declared to be heretics by Pope Lucius III in 1184, and again by Pope Innocent III in 1215. In 1211, more than 80 Waldensians were burned as heretics in Strasbourg, marking the start of centuries of persecution.

Francis, an Argentine Jesuit who was born to Piedmontese parents in Argentina, where a large part of Latin America's Waldensian community lives.

rc/ng (AP, dpa, Reuters)

http://www.dw.com/en/pope-francis-apologizes-to-waldensian-community/a-18531675

Blogs » Spiritual Politics

Pope Francis apologizes

Mark Silk | Jun 24, 2015 | 2 Comments

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Waldensian emblem Public Domain

On his visit to Turin this week, Pope Francis became the first pope to visit a Waldensian house of worship. He also became the first pope to apologize for the persecution of the Waldensians by the Catholic Church.

So who are the Waldensians and why did Francis visit and apologize to them? And is there any particular significance to his doing so?

The Waldensians get their name from Peter Waldo, a rich clothier and merchant of 12th-century Lyons, who as a young man experienced a radical conversion and decided to embrace “the apostolic life.” He turned his property over to his wife, gave the rest of his possessions to the poor, and began preaching and teaching publicly about the virtues of simplicity and poverty — with the help of a translation of the Bible into the vernacular. Within a few years, he acquired followers, who called themselves “the Poor of Lyons.”

In 1179, Waldo visited Pope Alexander III to get his approval for the new movement, but while the pope embraced him, his ideas were condemned as heretical later that year at the Third Lateran Council. What most seemed to bother church authorities was that Waldo and his followers presumed to teach the Christian message, and that they did so as lay people, traveling in mixed company out in the world. At a time when the apostolic life was considered to be the sole province of monks, canons, and nuns living celibate lives under fixed rules, this was scandalous. It didn’t help that the Waldensians went around criticizing church leaders for living high on the hog.

In due course Waldo was himself declared a heretic, and although he had made a perfectly orthodox profession of faith at a diocesan council in Lyons in 1180 or 1181, he and his followers seem to have developed unorthodox views — rejecting belief in transubstantiation and purgatory, for example. In subsequent centuries, the sect hung on in the Alpine regions of France and Italy, though severe and often violent persecution by the Church and its secular minions kept their numbers low.

The Waldensians are now thought of as forerunners of the Protestants, and in fact, when the Reformation came along, the surviving members signed up. Today, the 30,000 who remain identify with the Reformed tradition of John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli. But it is more accurate to regard them, in their origins, as forerunners of the Franciscans.

Waldo himself was very like St. Francis in turning as a young man from a well-to-do bourgeois existence to a life of poverty and service to the poor. His followers, like the early Franciscans, lived on the charity of the people among whom they preached and taught. It was recognized at the time that Pope Innocent III decided to authorize Francis’ new religious order in 1210 because of Waldo’s success.

Making friends and amends with the Waldensians was thus not just another bit of ecumenical outreach for the present leader of the Catholic Church. In speaking of the possibility of collaborating with them on “service to humanity which suffers, to the poor, the sick, the migrants,” Francis showed he knew that they are very much Christians after his own heart. Indeed, had Alexander III been as enlightened as Innocent III, the present occupant of the See of Peter might very well have named himself not Pope Francis but Pope Waldo.

- See more at: http://marksilk.religionnews.com/2015/06/24/pope-francis-apologizes/#sthash.ENFnTFkB.dpuf

http://marksilk.religionnews.com/2015/06/24/pope-francis-apologizes/

Pope Francis asks pardon from Waldensian Protestants for past persecution

By Philip Pullella

June 22, 2015

Tags:

pope francis catholic waldensian protestant italy turin persecution apology

(Waldensian Protestant church in Turin, 13 Dec 2005/MHM55)

Pope Francis asked forgiveness on Monday for the Roman Catholic Church’s “non-Christian and inhumane” treatment in the past of the Waldensians, a tiny Protestant movement the Vatican tried to exterminate in the 15th century.

Francis made his plea during the first ever visit by a pope to a Waldensian temple on the second day of a trip to Italy’s northern Piedmont region, the centre of the Waldensian Church, which has only about 30,000 followers worldwide.

While the movement is miniscule compared to the 1.2 billion member Roman Catholic Church, the gesture is part of Francis’ drive to promote Christian unity and it has taken on added significance ahead of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation in 2017.

“On behalf of the Catholic Church, I ask forgiveness for the un-Christian and even inhumane positions and actions taken against you historically,” he said. “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, forgive us!”

The Waldensians, who now live mostly in Italy and Latin America, were founded by Peter Waldo in France in the late 12th century. He gave up his wealth and preached poverty but as the movement grew it came into increasing theological conflict with the papacy.

The movement, an early precursor of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, was branded as heretical and in 1487 Pope Innocent VIII ordered its extermination.

Some 1,700 Waldensians were killed in 1655 by Catholic forces commanded by the Duke of Savoy.

Today the Waldensians are part of the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the World Council of Churches. They have

only two sacraments — baptism and the Lord’s Supper — as opposed to seven in the Roman Catholic Church, a member of the Italian branch said.

During a visit to Jerusalem in 2000, Francis’ predecessor Pope John Paul II asked forgiveness from Jews for their persecution by Catholics over the centuries.

In 2017, Christians will mark the 500th anniversary of the launching of the Protestant Reformation by Martin Luther, who nailed his 95 Theses to a church door in Germany to denounce corruption in the Catholic Church.

Various Christian churches have still not agreed on how they will jointly mark the divorce that split western Christianity and led to many bloody religious wars.

The head of the Protestant Church in Germany, Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, has said he would be in favour of inviting the pope to a “joint Christian festival” to mark the anniversary.

Francis, an Argentinian whose father and grandfather were born in the Turin area, wrapped up his two-day visit to the region with a private lunch with his Italian relatives.

via Pope asks pardon from Waldensian Protestants for past persecution | Reuters.

http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2015/06/22/pope-francis-asks-pardon-from-waldensian-protestants-for-past-persecution/

english

Pope Francis apologizes to Waldensian community

• 22 June 17:00
• 94

Pope Francis made the plea for forgiveness on the first ever visit by a pontiff to a Waldensian temple, declaring the persecution of the minority as "un-Christian."

The Waldensian Church has some 45,000 members - the majority in Italy's northern Piedmont region, with some 15,000 living in Latin America.

Speaking on Monday, the second day of his visit to Piedmont, Francis said he could not fail to feel sad about the "disputes and violence committed in the name of one's faith."

"On behalf of the Catholic Church, I ask for your forgiveness," he said. "I ask for your forgiveness for the un-Christian, even inhuman attitude and behavior we had against you. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, forgive us."

'Crossing a wall'

The pope's speech was greeted with warm applause with the temple's pastor, Eugenio Bernardini, thanking Francis for "crossing a wall erected eight centuries ago, when our church was accused of heresy and excommunicated."

The small movement was founded in the 12th century by Peter Waldo, a wealthy businessman from Lyon, France. Waldo preached simplicity and railed against the material excesses of the powerful Catholic Church. As the movement grew it came into increasing conflict with the Vatican, and Waldo was excommunicated.

The Waldensians were formally declared to be heretics by Pope Lucius III in 1184, and again by Pope Innocent III in 1215. In 1211, more than 80 Waldensians were burned as heretics in Strasbourg, marking the start of centuries of persecution.

Francis, an Argentine Jesuit who was born to Piedmontese parents in Argentina, where a large part of Latin America's Waldensian community lives.

rc/ng (AP, dpa, Reuters)

http://news.ge/en/news/story/140115-pope-francis-apologizes-to-waldensian-community

[세힘]

만면에 웃음을 띤 양복입은 분들이 왈덴지안이라면 제겐 어색한 그림이고 퍼즐맞추기판에서 무언가 빠져있는 듯 한 느낌이 강합니다.

[에이미]

나중에 넉넉한 웃음으로 원수를 용서한 저 선량한 사람들을 혹독하게 박해하는 건 아닐까요

[하토브]

이것은 중대한 사건입니다만 세상사람들은 이 진실을 모르고 있습니다.
우선 역사적으로 왈덴지안들은 콘스탄틴 이전까지 거슬러 올라간다고 종교재판관이 심문한 결과를 나중에 보고하였습니다.
왈덴지안에 대한 핍박은 1215년 경부터 혹은 1180년 부터가 아니라 훨씬 이전부터입니다.
그것을 한마디로 참회한다 하고 서로 용서한다고 말할 사안이 아닙니다. 로마 카톨릭 교도들에게 그 진실을 알려야 합니다. 그러나 로마 카톨릭은 그렇게 하지 않을 것입니다. 여기에 사죄의 진정성 문제가 있습니다.
그냥 임기 응변식이지요.

[하토브]

여기에 언급된 피에몽 계곡은 이탈리아에 있습니다만 프랑스 프로방스 도피네 지역에서부터 이곳에 이르기까지 피흘린 자취가 있습니다. 또한 그곳은 매우 아름다운 경치를 갖고 있다고 믿어집니다. 가보고 싶은 곳들 중의 하나입니다. 이들을 보도아 파라고도 불렀습니다. 알비는 도피네에서 약간 서쪽 지역인데 프랑스 발랑스에서 가깝습니다. 그 아래 남쪽이 바로 마르세유입니다.