Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 6:09am

PopeWatch: Lying About Luther

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The Pope gave another inflight interview on his flight back from Armenia, and it is a doozy.  We will be examining it piece by piece this week.  Go here to read the text of the interview.

Today we are looking at the comments of the Pope about Martin Luther:

I think that the intentions of Martin Luther were not mistaken. He was a reformer. Perhaps some methods were not correct. But in that time, if we read the story of the Pastor, a German Lutheran who then converted when he saw reality – he became Catholic – in that time, the Church was not exactly a model to imitate. There was corruption in the Church, there was worldliness, attachment to money, to power…and this he protested. Then he was intelligent and took some steps forward justifying, and because he did this. And today Lutherans and Catholics, Protestants, all of us agree on the doctrine of justification. On this point, which is very important, he did not err. He made a medicine for the Church, but then this medicine consolidated into a state of things, into a state of a discipline, into a way of believing, into a way of doing, into a liturgical way and he wasn’t alone; there was Zwingli, there was Calvin, each one of them different, and behind them were who? Principals! We must put ourselves in the story of that time. It’s a story that’s not easy to understand, not easy. Then things went forward, and today the dialogue is very good.

Makes you wonder what all that hullaballoo in regard to the Reformation was all about, doesn’t it?  PopeWatch doesn’t know who would be more appalled by the Pope’s statement:  Martin Luther, or the Catholics who opposed him, sometimes at the cost of their lives.  The Reformation was about the fundamental nature of the Church, and the Pope either doesn’t understand that, or it simply isn’t important to him.  Of course, it is possible that he is simply engaging in what he no doubt would regard as diplomatic lying.  If so, he is not the only Catholic cleric to do so.  Go here to read a sample of this type of mendacity.  PopeWatch recalls a few years ago when Saint Blogs was rent by a fight over whether it was ever moral to lie.  Ironically, some of the biggest boosters of Pope Francis, that is your cue Mark Shea, were adamant that lying could never be morally justified, not even in undercover operations against Murder Inc. Planned Parenthood or to save Jews from Nazis.  However, when high Churchmen routinely engage in “diplomatic” lies, somehow that apparently doesn’t count.

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Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Wednesday, June 29, AD 2016 4:01am

If all things be known, then I much prefer the Lutherans to this Pope. At least they know on what side of the Catholic-Protestant divide they sit.

Stephen E Dalton
Stephen E Dalton
Wednesday, June 29, AD 2016 7:52am

As a former Lutheran, I’m appalled at this Pope’s statements about Luther. Luther was a extremely disturbed individual, who, judging by the remarks he made, and the statements made by friends and foes, suffered from some form of mental illness, that caused him to have delusions of grandeur and hallucinations. Yet, this Pope thinks this man was a great Christian! His Holiness needs to brush up on his Protestant history!

Penguin Fan
Penguin Fan
Wednesday, June 29, AD 2016 10:04am

Being an Argentine and a VII guy, he knows nothing about Protestantism.
Lutheran Swedes trashed Poland in the mid 17th century…it was called the Deluge.

Brian
Brian
Wednesday, June 29, AD 2016 10:57am

One of the things that brought me out of Protestantism was reading the writings of one of its Founding Fathers, Martin Luther. He was always held up to us evangelicals as a model of Protest against Big Religion in favor of a private relationship with Jesus.

During my days of serious inquiry, I went back and attempted to read some of his works. I didn’t get far. The man was foul. I discovered that early on. Before I had any sense of leaving Protestantism, I made the judgement that Luther was an evil man. Evil, as in possessed by the devil kind of evil. A fount of obnoxious hate, was he.

And that was before you get to the questionable theology that includes the bedrock assertion, “Justified by Faith Alone”, with “Alone” penciled in by pope Luther into his personal version of Scripture, upon which his sola scriptura film-flam was based.

To say Catholics and Lutherans agree on Justification, (“This is important” says the Pope for emphasis), is as bedrock a heresy as you can get, I would think. Does that not require correction by anyone in authority?

Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd
Thursday, June 30, AD 2016 4:26am

Pope Francis is always extending his mercy and love to all but orthodox Catholics. By the way there is no other kind of Catholic, as to not be orthodox is to be Protestant.

Missy
Missy
Thursday, June 30, AD 2016 5:41am

I would like the Pope, and everyone else, to know that Seton Home Study School has a great history series. I’d suggest he start with the 6th grade book. If reading 7 years of history books is too much, then the 10th grade history book is excellent for learning the truth of the Protestant Revolt. I’ve heard that Catholic Textbook Project is even better. The sad thing is you can google “the truth about martin luther” and find out basic information from people who’ve already done all the research and summarized it.

Pinky
Pinky
Thursday, June 30, AD 2016 1:40pm

“Then he was intelligent and took some steps forward justifying, and because he did this. ”

What am I supposed to make of that sentence fragment? You can’t fisk something that doesn’t make sense. I could do one of those readings of this statement that would grant considerable leeway, and make it into something that a Catholic could say without triggering a lie detector, except there’s no way to salvage that particular passage.

I think Pope Francis realized it, too. He was making a broad point about what came before Luther’s break being bad, and then got to the part where he had to address that Luther’s break was bad too, and his sentence exploded. Then he ended with a bit about how Luther wasn’t completely wrong about everything, and ecumenism is promising. It’s like if you asked me to say something positive about Benedict Arnold. It’s a lot like that, actually. I’d say that he was a good young military officer, then I’d say something incoherent, and end with him being a successful businessman.

CAM
CAM
Thursday, June 30, AD 2016 6:15pm

This is the question asked by the German reporter, Kleinjung, “Holy Father, I wanted to ask you a question. Today you spoke of the gifts of the shared Churches, of the gifts shared by the Churches together. Seeing that you will go in I believe four months to Lund for the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the reformation, I think perhaps this is also the right moment for us not only to remember the wounds on both sides but also to recognize the gifts of the reformation. Perhaps also – this is a heretical question – perhaps to annul or withdraw the excommunication of Martin Luther or of some sort of rehabilitation. Thank you.” The pope’s lengthy non answer is printed is printed above. Perhaps we should be grateful that the question regarding anullment or withdrawal of Luther’s excommunication was not answered.

CAM
CAM
Thursday, June 30, AD 2016 6:28pm

“I think that the intentions of Martin Luther were not mistaken. He was a reformer. Perhaps some methods were not correct. But in that time, if we read the story of the Pastor, a German Lutheran who then converted when he saw reality – he became Catholic – in that time, the Church was not exactly a model to imitate.”

Pastor>German Lutheran>became Catholic, I cannot follow PF’s train of thought.

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