Pope Considering Rehabilitating Martin Luther
I’m fairly certain Martin Luther would actually not be in favor of lifting the label of "heretic" unless and until the Papacy granted the points he makes in the Smalcald Articles about the absolute "non-negotiables" that shall always separate the Biblical Gospel confession of Lutheranism from the teachings of Rome. Here is an interesting story. And so while we pray fervently for the unity of the Church, we must remember that before Christ prayed for unity, he prayed his followers would continue steadfast in the Truth. This will give us all a chance once more to study carefully, reflect deeply and ponder anew the meaning of the Reformation. Here’s the book for that.
From
That Martin Luther? He wasn’t so bad, says Pope
Pope Benedict XVI is to rehabilitate Martin Luther, arguing that he did not
intend to split Christianity but only to purge the Church of corrupt
practices.
Pope Benedict will issue his findings on Luther (1483-1546) in September after
discussing him at his annual seminar of 40 fellow theologians — known
as the Ratzinger Sch�lerkreis — at Castelgandolfo, the papal summer
residence. According to Vatican insiders the Pope will argue that Luther,
who was excommunicated and condemned for heresy, was not a heretic.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, the head of the pontifical Council for Promoting
Christian Unity, said the move would help to promote ecumenical dialogue
between Catholics and Protestants. It is also designed to counteract the
impact of July’s papal statement describing the Protestant and Orthodox
faiths as defective and “not proper Churches”.
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. This week it emerged that the
Vatican is planning to erect a statue of Galileo, who also faced a heresy
trial, to mark the 400th anniversary next year of his discovery of the
telescope.
The Pope has also reached out to the Muslim world to mend fences after his
2006 speech at Regensburg University in which he appeared to describe Islam
as inherently violent and irrational. This week Muslim scholars and Vatican
officials met at the pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue in Rome
to begin laying the groundwork for a meeting between the Pope and leading
Muslims, also expected to be held at Castelgandolfo.
Cardinal Kasper said: “We have much to learn from Luther, beginning with the
importance he attached to the word of God.” It was time for a “more
positive” view of Luther, whose reforms had aroused papal ire at the time
but could now be seen as having “anticipated aspects of reform which the
Church has adopted over time”.
The Castelgandolfo seminar will in part focus on the question of apostolic
succession, through which the apostles passed on the authority they received
from Jesus to the first bishops. After the Reformation Protestants took the
view that “succession” referred only to God’s Word and not to church
hierarchies but some German scholars have suggested Luther himself did not
intend this.
Luther challenged the authority of the papacy by holding that the Bible is the
sole source of religious authority and made it accessible to ordinary people
by translating it into the vernacular. He became convinced that the Church
had lost sight of the “central truths of Christianity”, and was appalled on
a visit to Rome in 1510 by the power, wealth and corruption of the papacy.
In 1517 he protested publicly against the sale of papal indulgences for the
remission of sins in his “95 Theses”, nailing a copy to the door of a
Wittenberg church. Some theologians argue that Luther did not intend to
confront the papacy “in a doctrinaire way” but only to raise legitimate
questions – a view Pope Benedict apparently shares.
Luther was excommunicated by Pope Leo X, who dismissed him initially as “a
drunken German who will change his mind when sober”.
This will only serve to justify in the minds of the LWF and ELCA that JDDJ was the correct approach and that “Rome ain’t all that bad.”
So, Benny has decided to do a fellow German a good turn, eh? He proposes to lift my excommunication in the spirit of ecumenical dialogue, eh? He hopes to soften his own image by cleaning up mine among the papists, eh?
LET ME TELL YOU WHAT HE CAN DO WITH HIS RETRACTATION! HE CAN STICK IT UP HIS CANON LAW, ALONG WITH THE BULL I BURNED TO LIGHT MY SAUSAGE-ON-A-STICK!
Miserable jackanapes! The only thing that could soften his image is if he joined the Salvation Army—AND THEN ONLY IF HE STARTED OUT AS A CORPORAL! Two years shaking that stupid bell in a shopping mall in Anaheim and maybe—MAYBE—he’d get a Christmas card or two.
I refuse to be rehabilitated! I remain sufficiently habilitated in my own mind and in the minds of true believers in the gospel everywhere! I wish to remain a blot on the escutcheon of the papacy now and forever until the Church of Rome renounces its errors and gives me back the 15 guilder I spent on indulgences during my trip to Rome. No one can tell me I’m not still in purgatory—WHEN AM I GOING TO SEE A NEW EPISODE OF “HOUSE”?? What a ripoff!
This is my message for B16: I want you to go out on your balcony next Sunday and repeat after me: “I, Benedict XVI, bishop of Rome, so-called vicar of Christ, erstwhile Grand Inquisitor, current pedant in chief, do hereby renounce works righteousness in all its forms, and do hereby pledge to preach justification by faith alone and that we are righteous in God’s sight only by virtue of Christ’s merits applied to sinners.” I then want you to take the text of the Council of Trent and tear it into confetti pieces and sprinkle it on the heads of your suppliants. Only then will true Protestants open their ears to you. Until then, every word you utter subtracts from the sum total of human knowledge!
Why won’t they leave me in peace? I know why: because there’s no getting around Luther—and not just because I now weigh more than a Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Hummer! Luther loosed the world from its bondage to papistical, pharisaical legalism. Rome is the gospel’s jailer! I am its liberator, prepared to suffer calumny and scandal, even to have aspersions cast in my general direction five minutes after I vacuumed the rug!
Oh what I don’t suffer for the truth! Where are my Cheez-Its? I demand the return of my Cheez-Its! I SHALL GO MAD!
Hello,please visit the new site http://www.martin-luther2017.de and http://katharinavonboraev.blogspot.com
country: Martin Luthers home
Contact: luther2017@web.de
Interesse Cooperation ?
Yours sincerely
Guenther Troege
K.von Bora Association
It seems to me that any Catholic who thinks Luther can be rehabilitated is either engaging in wishful thinking, and fooling themselves, or is intentionally trying to fool others. I was in the former category in my Catholic days when I thought it possible.
Let anyone who thinks it possible review the Smalcald Articles. That’s the take I’ve taken on my blog.
If Benedict wishes to rehabilitate Luther, then perhaps, he could lead off the discussion with a declaration that Leo X (made a 13 year cardinal by Innocent VIII) was a heretic. In fact, the Catholic Encyclopedia says: “That Leo X, in the most serious of all the crises which threatened the Church, should fail to prove the proper guide for her, is clear enough from what has been related above.” While he is at it, he could clean up the record and perhaps, peccadillos (too weak a term) of all of those popes who bought and sold not only the papacy but all of the other offices as well (e.g. use of English offices by Italians, Luther’s comment that the priests of Germany knew nothing of Scripture, etc.). Then he might see that his forbearers could use some justification themselves and that justification not of their works but solely by the grace of God.
I guess that you could say that I am not interested in some empty declaration but must see some real honesty from this man.
In Christ,
Gleason
Anyone, including B16, who thinks we’re any closer to reunification with Rome should read JUSTIFICATION AND ROME, by the late Robert Preus. It clears away all the fog from the JDDJ (Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification) and any other ecumenical talk of the sort.
However, I will say that with all their false doctrine of works righteousness, those like Rick Warren and others who claim “faith is not enough” SHOULD join Rome again. Nothing of importance separates them anymore! At least Rome has the Sacraments of Baptism and of Christ’s body and blood! Most modern “Evangelicals” and even most “Lutherans” (especially most of those in the ELCA) might be better off to return to Rome. The only problem is, they couldn’t take their pastorettes with them.
http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=57062
Rest easy. The Times article may be reading too much into B16′s conference, at least that’s what the Catholic World News thinks as it addresses the article. Interestingly enough, Henry VIII still appears to be viewed as a hero in those circles. One of the comments to the CWN article hales King Henry for denouncing Luther, but fails to mention his actions in forming the Church of England for personal reasons.
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0801347.htm
Also, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi calls the assertion that Luther will be rehabilitated groundless, stating that “no rehabilitation is foreseen,” and that Luther is not even being considered as a topic for the conference. This story was issued today. The tone of this article is much more sympathetic to Luther, noting that he was excommunicated by the church for “teaching a philosophy that doubted the infallability of the pope.”