Memory of Jan Hus should spur reform, quest for Christian unity, Pope tells Czech Protestant leaders
June 15, 2015
The figure of Jan Hus—the Czech priest and reformer who was burned at the stake for heresy in 1415—should be a “reason for dialogue” between Catholics and Protestants, Pope Francis said in a June 15 meeting with Czech Protestant leaders.
The Pope told his Czech guests—who were in Rome for a liturgy of reconciliation, marking the 600th anniversary of Hus’ death—that an objective study of the case would be “an important service to historical truth.”
In 1999, St. John Paul II expressed sorrow for the execution of Jan Hus, and referred to him as a reformer of the Church. Expanding on that theme, Pope Francis recalled that the Second Vatican Council taught that “every renewal of the Church is essentially grounded in an increase of fidelity to her own calling.” By that logic, the Pope said, any reform should also be the basis of a call to Christian unity.
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Posted by: TheJournalist64 -
Jun. 15, 2015 5:55 PM ET USA
Hus was more of a revolutionary than a reformer. Compared to the later Prot revolutionaries, he was less radical, but he thumbed his nose at the hierarchy. His burning was a mistake, though. Life sentence listening to some of the more boring profs of theology of his day would have been a wiser course of action.
