Posted Dec. 30, 2007 MINNEAPOLIS 12:05am CT | LONDON 06:05am | SYDNEY 05:05pm

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - December 30, the 5th day of Christmas in Western Christianity

Researched and written by Gloriscope staff

1993: The Vatican officially recognized the State of Israel. – The Fundamental Agreement was signed on that day between the Vatican and Israel, regulating the mutual political relations, the relations between the Catholic Church and the State of Israel, and the relations between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people. This was a milestone day in the Vatican-Israeli relations.

1971: The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission issued its Agreed Statement on the Eucharistic Doctrine.

1966: Death of the Italian Cardinal Pietro Ciriaci (1885-1966), the President of the Pontifical Commission for the Interpretation of Canon Law in 1955.

1961: Birth of Sean Hannity, a U.S. Roman Catholic, who is currently a nationally popular co-host of the U.S. cable TV talk show “Hannity & Colmes” on Fox News Channel in the U.S.

1960: Karol Wojtyla, who became Pope John Paul II, was consecrated as the Roman Catholic bishop of Krakow in Poland.

1956: Death of the German Evangelical theologian and philosopher Heinrich Scholz (1884-1956). – He was a student of Adolf von Harnack and a friend of Karl Barth. He was in contact with Alan Turing and his research in theoretical mathematical logic had a big influence on the development of the theory of computational information processing.

1951: Birth of Ben Witherington III, a United Methodist, a prominent U.S. professor of New Testament Biblical Exegesis at the Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky, U.S.A. - He has written over thirty books, one of his recent ones is The Problem with Evangelical Theology.

1940: Death of the Albanian Catholic poet Gjergj Fishta 1871-1940), who had a great influence on the development of the Albanian literary language.. – He was a Franciscan friar, a member of the Albanian delegation at the peace conference in Paris (1919-1920), and the Vice President of the parliament of Albania.

1912: Birth of the German Dominican Fr. Gordian Landwehr OP (1912-1998), the most prominent Catholic preacher in the former Communist state of East Germany.

1877: Birth of Heinrich Hermelink (1877-1958), a prominent German church historian. – He published numerous books on German and European history of the Roman Catholic and Evangelical Protestant church. His greatest work is “Christianity in the Human History from the French Revolution to the Present,” published in three volumes in 1951-1955.

1630: Death of the prominent German Calvinist theologian Matthias Martinius (1572-1630). – He wrote many works on biblical exegesis, ethics, logic, and Hebrew studies. He was involved in Johannes Piscator’s translation of the Bible into the German language.

1606: Death of the German Evangelical theologian Heinrich Bünting (1545-1606). – He wrote the book “Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae“ (”The Itinerary of Holy Scripture”), which was widely read in western Europe.

274: Death of Felix I, bishop of Rome, who died as a martyr of the early Church during the persecution of Christians under the Roman emperor Decius. – He was buried in the catacombs of Calixtus in Rome..

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TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY!

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