Wittenberg, Germany - Lutherans officially launched on Sunday a decade of celebrations to mark the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. The break from the Catholic Church began in 1517 when a monk, Martin Luther, nailed 95 demands to the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany. Within decades, large sections of Europe had adopted the new religious ideas.
The president of the Lutheran World Federation, US bishop Mark Hanson, told a congregation of German leaders in the same church Sunday, "We Lutherans have lived through history and we have made history."
He said Protestants had to live in a world of pluralistic beliefs, between the lure of extremism on the one hand and secularism on the other. The federation says there are 68 million Lutherans around the world today.
German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the congregation he hoped the memorial decade would be a time for Lutherans to try harder to help other faiths, especially Islam, integrate into German society.
"In practical ways we have to enable Muslims to exercise the freedom of religion that our constitution guarantees them," he said.
The town of Wittenberg has preserved both the church and the former home of Martin Luther (1483-1546).
