[SeekAndFind]

More here fopr discussion :

http://www.newser.com/story/20839/pope-to-cut-luther-a-break.html

Pope to Cut Luther a Break : Vatican changing view after 500 years

By Peter Fearon

Five centuries after he ignited the Reformation by challenging papal authority, Martin Luther is expected to get a break from—of all people—Pope Benedict XVI. The pope is German and ostensibly that’s the only thing he has in common with Luther. Nevertheless, the pope plans a warmer and fuzzier re-evaluation of the monk who divided Christianity in 1517, according to the Times of London. Benedict is expected to argue that Luther didn’t intend to divide the Church—only cleanse it of corruption.

It’s a bid to launch an ecumenical dialog with Lutherans and bridge a rift created by an earlier papal statement referring to Protestant and Orthodox faiths as defective. “We have much to learn from Luther, beginning with the importance he attached to the word of God,” said the Vatican’s front man on Christian Unity. He observed that Luther “anticipated aspects of reform which the Church has adopted over time.”

[FroggyTheGremlim]

"The move to re-evaluate Luther is part of a drive to soften Pope Benedict's image as an arch conservative hardliner as he approaches the third anniversary of his election next month."

What a load of crap! Does Richard Owen really believe the Pope is so political?

[supremedoctrine]

So Luther was basically just a “whistleblower”?
I don’t have a dog in this fight, but Benedict
seems prompted by some agenda, maybe not even conscious,
to re-unite Christianity—there have already been signs of this from the beginning with his sober evalutation of Islam.

[PetroniusMaximus]

Served up fresh for Catholics FReeper...