Weak scent of the rehabilitation of Luther

Cathcon translation of
Großbritannien: Haltlose Gerüchte um Rehabilitierung Luthers

The Triumph of Cardinal Kasper's Hope over his Faith.

The London Times believes that a rehabilitation of Martin Luther will take place. Pope Benedict XVI will declare in September that the 1520 excommunicated reformer was not a teacher of error was reported in "The Times" with reference to Vatican circles on Thursday in the online edition. Luther did not divide the church, but only purged it of corrupt practices.

The head of the Catholic Church will give his views about Luther during the so-called Group of Ratzinger Pupils, and then set out the conclusions of an investigation.

The approximately 40 senior theologians of the school district meet annually in private in Castel Gandolfo. In recent years they have worked on the relationship between faith and reason, or the theory of evolution; issues shaped by the thinking of the Pope or the Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, a prominent student of Ratzinger.

According to The Times a reassessment of Luther by the Pope would lend support to ecumenical dialogue between Protestants and Catholics. It was a counterweight to the irritation about the understanding of ecclesiastical office and church. Times correspondent Richard Owen points out as a witness the President of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. Cardinal Walter Kasper calls for a more positive picture. "We can learn a lot from Luther, starting with the importance he gave to the word of God," Kasper is quoted as saying. According to information from Vatican Radio, this is only a basic conviction of the Vatican Minister for Ecumenical Affairs and not based on a recent interview.

According to canon law, the rehabilitation of Luther is hardly possible. The excommunication is tied to a person, the penalty rendered ineffective by the death of Luther. Rumours about a revaluation of Luther had, inter alia, in 1996 been raised in connection with the last German visit of Pope John Paul II.

Martin Luther (1483-1546), with its doctrine of justification of "sinful people before God" laid the theological foundation stone for the church schism in Europe. Papal indulgences, he radically called into question. Pope Leo X held him initially for a "drunken German, who would reflect, when he sobered up." In 1521, Luther was excommunicated. During the Council of Trent (1545-1563) the Catholic Church rejected from their point of view "erroneous doctrine of justification." After some 30 years of dialogue, the Lutherans and Catholics in 1999, in a joint declaration on the doctrine of justification, lifted their previous mutually contradictory teaching positions on the matter.

Comments

Unknown said…
" Luther did not divide the church, but only purged it of corrupt practices."

No one seems to be pointing out or taking notice that if ALL ML did was purge the corrupt practices, the only thing left for the Catholic Church to do is toss 5 sacraments, apostolic succession theologies, and Eucharistic theologies as a start.

Because for what was given up, the Vatican could in no way do this witout saying "We are still doing a lot of things that are unnecesary"... An infailable Pope couldn't use his infailabilty to compell this error. After all, what infailabilty? If Luther was otherwise right and THAT is catholicism... the best the Pope could do is say "Who knows? Whatever!"

Critical thinking coursework needs to become part of the curriculim in J-school!