German nonsense

See: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/10214

Catholic bishop welcomes the challenge of Luther

By Ecumenical News International

13 Sep 2009

The Roman Catholic bishop of Osnabrück in northern Germany has said that the 16th-century Protestant reformer, Martin Luther, offers a "positive challenge" to Protestant and Catholic churches.

"It's fascinating just how radically he puts God at the centre," Bishop Franz-Josef Bode said in an interview with the German Protestant news agency epd, in connection with a service at Osnabrück's Lutherkirche earlier this month, during which he preached on Luther.

Luther, said Bode, had rightly denounced failures in the Church and he had recalled the roots of faith.

Bode described Luther as a "fascinating personality for both churches", noting that the reformer had not intended to divide the Church through the dissemination of his 95 Theses of 1517, but that his teaching had later been exploited by others for their own purposes.

Luther had been more concerned in dealing with the fundamental question of how God turns towards human beings.

In the Church of that era there had been tendencies that contributed to "misunderstandings", said Bode, citing grace and the forgiveness of sins as things that certainly cannot be bought, in a reference to the contemporary practice of the Catholic Church of selling indulgences.

"The focus on Christ, the Bible and the authentic Word - are things that we as the Catholic Church today can only underline," said Bode. He noted that especially with the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church has been able to understand and address in a new way Luther's thought and his esteem for the Word of God.

The Second Vatican Council met from 1962 to 1965 and it led to the Catholic Church accepting for the first time that there could be coexistence of different forms of faith in Christ, said the bishop.

The 50th anniversary of the council in 2015 takes place in the decade preparing for the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation of 2017. Bode said he would work within the German (Catholic) Bishops' Conference to ensure that the ecumenical aspects of the Second Vatican Council are underlined.

Still, said Bode, there remain elements of division between the Catholic Church and Luther. These divisions centre on the understanding that Luther developed from his own experience of the Church, the priesthood and the sacraments.

The Catholic Church would, however, "today deal with such a provocation in a different and a better way," said the bishop.

[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Conference of European Churches.]

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Leaving aside that the source of this story is a news oranization started by European Protestants, a Roman Catholic Bishop in Germany is defending Luther? Ouch!

Bishop Bode may wish to ignore Pope Leo X and his two bulls:

 

 

Exsurge Domine in 1520; and,

 

 

Contra errores Martini Lutheri of 1521.

 

But how can Bishop Bode ignore ?

 

 

There is no more systematic refutation of the vast errors of Lutheranism than the Canons & Decrees of the Council of Trent.

 

And if Bishop Bode were to say, as I think he might from his reported words, that the Second Vatican Council modified or changed any of the doctrinal teachings of Trent, then he is guilty of the same sin as Luther.

 

“for the union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it, for in the past they have unhappily left it. To the one true Church of Christ, we say, which is visible to all, and which is to remain, according to the will of its Author, exactly the same as He instituted it.”

 Pope Pius XI – “Mortalium Animos”

Comments

[Frank Balkus]

I was and altar boy for the SSPX, I knew all the Sadevaticanist's of rhe Pius IX group,"The infamouse nine that left the SSPX". I knew Bishop Williamson when he was Fr.Williamson, I hope someone will write a book about me, as I'm very poor...please e-mail me at [email protected] you and God Bless.

[Michael Bridgwater]

I can tell you this: when I visit Germany, many of the Catholic churches out Protestant the Protestant churches in their banality. Whilst the [high] Lutheran churches are arrayed as Catholic churches pre-Vatican II. To the unitiated you could well make the mistake of one actually a N.O. Mass - even Benedictions. It used to be like that in parts of the UK, pre-Vatican II, including full Latin! The German hierarchy are anti-BXVI almost to a man.

[JT]

I would be most appreciative of any summary you could provide of the vast errors of Lutheranism from "Canons & Decrees of the Council of Trent," or if you could point me to a good introductory manuscript on the subject.

[Constantine]

I was just checking to see if JT would get an answer. I was curious myself. Perhaps LL98 overstated his case. Trent, after all, did fix a myriad of Roman abuses that should be mentioned.

And what's wrong with a Catholic bishop admonishing people to live "God centered" lives?

[JT]

I've been checking back, too. In light of the exposure of the ELCA's historical critical nonsense, I'm in a mood to learn if the Lutheran ideas were doomed from the start, or if the modern issues are of their own creation.

[Kevin]

I find it fascinating that you insert a quote from Pius XI but nothing from the Decree on Ecumenism from Vatican II. Doesn't an ecumenical council far outrank a papal statement?