Martin Luther's been through rehab in Rome.Pope Benedict XVI, intends to discuss Luther at his annual seminar this summer at Castelgandolfo (the Pope's summer palace). Some 40 theologians will participate.
Benedict plans to tell his theologues that Luther, who the church excommunicated and condemned for heresy , was not really, truly a heretic. No, Luther was a good guy who really, truly wanted to "purge the Church of corrupt practices."
The Vatican is becoming a very confusing place. Just last July, Benedict said that Protestants and Orthodox Christians were defective and their churches were "not proper churches."
Now, he wants to bring Luther back into the fold?
Supposedly there is a movement of sorts going on in the papal chambers to make Benedict look like a good guy himself and not a nasty, old, fusty cleric, still stuck in the Middle Ages. So, the Vatican has plans to put up a statue of Galileo. Galileo, you'll recall, said about 400 years ago that the earth revolved around the sun, rather than vice versa. The Church said, "Oh, my God, Galileo is a heretic," and forced him to recant what he knew was true!
The Pope also plans to bring Muslims in to talk. In 2006, Benedict stuck his foot in it again when he "appeared to describe Islam as inherently violent and irrational."
Back to Luther. One RC poobah said "We have much to learn from Luther, beginning with the importance he attached to the word of God." Blah, blah, blah.
Maybe the Pope should leave the dead in peace. Considering the totality of Luther's writings and sermonizing, his rants against the common folk, and especially that stuff about the Jews, it may be that Pope Leo X was right when he said Luther was "a drunken German who will change his mind when sober."
And ... if Luther is rehabbed by the RC's, does that mean that all Lutheran churches are automatically brought into communion with Rome and should attach the word, "Roman Catholic" after their name?
1 comment:
I have often wondered how it has been possible for all the many Christian forms of religion continue to expand. I am not sure that they all agree on the basics or even what the basics are. How can there be over a thousand Protestant denominations; a wide variety of “Orthodox” plus the new small denominations like Mormon, Scientology, New Age, Humanistic, etc?
How is God defined in so many ways? Is Jesus God, the son of God, both? Does the Devil roam the earth along with angels? What is the difference between the Jewish God, the Christian God and the Muslim God, if any? Why do believers kill each other over the differences? Why do two out of the three have a history of killing Jews en masse, over the centuries if they use the original Jewish faith as their basis?
How can the variety of Bibles, with typos, incorrect translations, omissions and corrections all be infallible or used as the “truth” by so many different groups? Why is one correct and all the others wrong?
I wonder and imagine I am not alone.
Bob Poris
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