Posted on 03/11/2008 8:05:54 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Rumors that the Vatican is set to rehabilitate Martin Luther, the 16th-century leader of the Protestant Reformation, are groundless, said the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi.
News reports in early March alleged that Pope Benedict XVI was dedicating a planned September symposium with former doctoral students to re-evaluating Luther, who was excommunicated and condemned for heresy.
The story "does not have any foundation, insofar as no rehabilitation of Luther is foreseen," Father Lombardi told the Italian news agency ANSA March 8.
Vatican officials said the topic of the pope's annual summer gathering of former students this year has not yet been decided. Of the two topics under consideration, Luther is not one of them, one official told Catholic News Service.
Excesses in 16th-century preaching about indulgences and in Catholic penitential practices sparked Luther, a theologian and Augustinian monk, to seek reform in the church. His concerns started a movement that led to the Protestant Reformation.
The church excommunicated Luther for preaching a philosophy doubting the pope's infallibility.
Luther emphasized the absolute primacy of God's action in freeing people from sin and making them just, and the total sufficiency of Christ's death to expiate the sins of all.
In 1983, Pope John Paul II noted that studies by Lutheran and Catholic researchers "have led to a more complete and more differentiated image of the personality of Luther" as well as the complicated historical factors surrounding his life.
Nearly 500 years after the Reformation began in 1517, Lutherans and Catholics resolved one of the issues that began the Reformation era when they signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in 1999.
The declaration said the churches' consensus on basic truths means that the doctrine of justification is not a church-dividing issue for Catholics and Lutherans even though differences between them remain in language, theological elaboration and emphasis surrounding those basic truths.
Really? I'd always thought that in Decet Romanum Pontificem Leo X excommunicated Luther for failing to retract the 41 theses listed in Exsurge Domine.
Really? I'd always thought that in Decet Romanum Pontificem Leo X excommunicated Luther for failing to retract the 41 theses listed in Exsurge Domine.
Maybe they should have excommunicated him for not sharing his time machine; how else could he have known about and disagreed with a doctrine (papal infallibility) that wouldn't be recognized for over 300 more years.
LOL!!! It seems that the journalists at Catholic News Service get some bad intell, too.
Anyway, whether or not Luther had one, I'm glad that the Vatican has a time machine now.
I swear, we are the worst secret keepers in the world!
Wow! There’s some fodder for the conspiracy nuts.
Looking at the mess the protestantism is, it is unlikely that the instigator of that mess would be “rehabilitated” as if his errors don’t continue to spread.
Keep a Good Lent!
I can't help noting the irony of sending this ping after sundown March 11, therefore the start of the liturgical day of March 12, which for ECLA Lutherans (but not LCMS) and Roman Catholics is the Commemoration of Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome.
And, yes, "separated brethren" is a great improvement from the "schismatics and heretics."
bttt for Lent
you wrote:
“-why doesn’t the Catholic church recant Trent”
Because there’s no need. Trent was right.
“-stop using condescending terms like “seperated brethren” when speaking of non-Catholic Christians”
Because it’s not condescending, but those who know it applies to them apparently feel or act guilty and defensive when it is applied to them.
“-and, formally acknowledge that the full benefits of Christ are sealed in all who claim the biblical title Christian”
How can that be done when some of those same people deny part of the Bible, the Church Christ sent, the sacraments He bled for, or the cleansing He bled out for?
“Only then can anyone have an honest dialog.”
It is almost impossible to have an honest dialog with Protestants since they deny reality, history, a part of the Bible, the Church Christ founded, etc.
“Oh sure, you can sign a document with the ELCA and claim that progress has been made.”
The document in question wasn’t signed with ELCA. Wasn’t the WLF?
“But conservative Reformed and Lutherans will never, ever go along with such unless Rome were to take such steps.”
Then they will reap what they sow. The brighter, more humble, more devout Lutherans, however, will come home. Many already have.
You wrote:
“How does any human being ‘rehabilitate’ a dead person?”
This is the Church, and not just a human being. The rehabilitation - and there won’t be one for Luther - would just be an acknowledgement that Luther was right in what he said or did. The Church has long recognized already that Luther was right on some issues.
The US or US states rehabilitate people long after death by admitting they didn’t commit the crimes which they were convicted of, having honors and awards officially restored to them, etc.
Doc E's tagline sums up quite well the arrogance of Rome:
"I don't think they want my respect; I think they want my submission." - Flemming Rose
Then, contrary to the protests of many Catholics on this board, dialog is not the goal, but the destruction of all vestiges of true Christianity.
Thanks for validating Rome’s goal.
and why should Rome do that? The Lutherans left the church and not the other way around.
You wrote:
“Then, contrary to the protests of many Catholics on this board, dialog is not the goal, but the destruction of all vestiges of true Christianity.”
Incorrect.
1) I know of no one who believes dialog is, in itself, a goal of anything other than dialog. The goal is reconciliation and reunion.
2) Catholicism is true Christianity.
“Thanks for validating Romes goal.”
Thanks for validating the notion that Protestants are willing to distort truth rather than deal with it.
Ah, well, there are many who already believe that Luther was right.
Don't whine we don't talk to those confessions.
Repudiating Trent means repudiating the Mass. At that point, St. Peter's can become a mosque and the Sistine chapel can become an art museum, because the Catholic Church will cease to exist.
Taking the "Pope is antichrist" garbage out of the Lutheran doctrinal statements is a matter of removing offensive and unChristian language.
The two are not remotely comparable. Talk about the "arrogance of Rome"?!? The price of removing an offensive remark is for the prospective partner in "dialogue" to cease to exist?
"I'll stop insulting you in public, if you'll agree to commit suicide." -- That's effectively what you're saying.
And you talk about OUR arrogance, and us demanding YOUR submission????
Sounds like it came from the playbook of the SSPX! I had you pegged as a RadTrad until I saw your ID.
Then continue to take pride in your joint declarations with pro-abortion/female ordaining churches.
We will remain the true conservative church while Rome makes deals with the devil.
SSPX?
LOL
Did he or didn’t he? Facts are facts.
And a "true conservative church" doesn't bless birth control. Even your Presbyterian ancestors knew that.
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