Beatification of anti-Nazi martyrs divides Lutherans, Catholics

Luebeck, Germany (ENInews)–Residents of this north German city have long taken pride in four native sons — three Catholic priests and a Lutheran pastor — who were beheaded in quick succession on 10 November 1943 by the Nazi regime. The commingled blood of Catholic priests Johannes Prassek, Hermann Lange, Eduard Mueller and Lutheran pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink spawned an ecumenical cooperation between the city’s majority Lutherans and minority Catholics that still lasts, Religion News Service reports. But the Vatican’s decision to beatify the three priests on 25 June — but not Stellbrink — is testing that ecumenical spirit, and has some religious leaders worried that the event could drive a wedge between the two communities.   Click here to read more.