Brussels, Belgium, Oct 31, 2017 / 15:22 pm
A group of Catholics who were reciting the rosary were removed Saturday from the Brussels cathedral on the grounds that they were disturbing a service celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
The United Protestant Church in Belgium was hosting the event with the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther posting the 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg Castle – a gesture which led to Luther's eventual schism from the Catholic Church.
Steven Fuit, president of the UPCB, spoke at the event, saying it was an ecumenical service and noting that "our unity essentially derives from respecting differences."
"Our individuality and our unity consist not in the passive acceptance of diversity," Fuit said, according to the Catholic Herald.
"Without the other who is different, who thinks otherwise, who does otherwise, I do not exist, I am nothing. Differences are an inherent part of unity," he continued.
However, approximately a dozen young Catholics made an appearance during the commemoration and began to recite the rosary with linked arms during the ceremony.
Police ultimately removed the group from the cathedral, as shown on a YouTube video.
The group of Catholics allegedly handed out a leaflet calling the ceremony a "profanation," according to Media-Presse-Info, a French news website.
"Our Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula is a Catholic building built by our fathers to be a House of God, for the celebration of holy Mass, for the praise of God and the saints," read the leaflet.
"Indeed, the so-called Reformation was really a revolt: under the pretext of combatting abuses, Luther rebelled against the divine authority of the Catholic Church, denied numerous Truths of the Faith, abolished the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacraments, rejected the necessity of good works and the practice of Christian virtues. Finally, he attacked the veneration of the Virgin Mary and the saints, the religious life and monastic vows," the leaflet continued.
"This terrible revolution was a great tragedy for Christian society and for the salvation of souls. And the Lutheran errors are still heresies today because the Truth is eternal."