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Catholics praying Hail Mary removed by Police from Brussels Cathedral during "Reformation Celebration" It must be one of the most shameful episodes of our shameful hierarchy of atrocious bishops.  In Brussels Cathedral, the 500 years of the hideous acts of heresiarch Luther were celebrated. What did a small group of serious Catholics do? They pleaded Our Lord for forgiveness, by invoking the aid of Our Lady in the Ave Maria. The result? These brave Catholics were forcibly removed from the Cathedral by the Police, certainly called by Cathedral staff.  Removed. By the Police. For praying to Our Lady. In a Catholic church....

According to popular tradition, it was on Oct. 31, 1517, that a relatively unknown Catholic monk named Martin Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses on the front door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany. Luther intended his work, written in Latin, to be read by priests and monks. The Ninety-five Theses concerned changes he felt were needed in the Catholic Church. Within a short time Luther’s Theses were translated into German, and a number of clergy and lay people began to agree with him. Little did he know that this simple act would spark a revolution that would break the...

The brilliant German monk never intended to start his own Church A few years ago, a Lutheran friend sent me a link to her favourite website: Lutheran Satire. The brainchild of a US Lutheran pastor, it focuses on Church humour from a Lutheran angle. The goal is catechesis through comedy, and no issue or religious leader is too sacred to poke. One of the site’s most popular videos is a cartoon called “The Reformation Piggybackers”. The plot is simple: Luther nails his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg church...

Few people have punctuated history like Martin Luther, the man who spawned the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago, says author Eric Metaxas, whose latest book chronicles his life and legacy. "I never wanted to write another biography," Metaxas said in an interview with The Christian Post in early September, noting that his previous biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, was a huge undertaking. But two friends — to whom he dedicates his new work, Martin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed World —convinced him that he was the man for the job given that this...

Third, Akin’s argument that a commemoration of the “Reformation” is not a celebration of it borders on deliberate deception. Akin cites favorably “From Conflict to Communion: The Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017.”  This deplorable piece of trash, which portrays the destroyer of Christendom and his fellow “reformers” as laudable Christians who “had no desire to found a new church,” was produced jointly by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, which would more aptly be named the Pontifical Council for the Prevention of Christian Unity. The LWF’s member sects...

In October or November Pope Francis will publish some document, through which he will remove the excommunication of Martin Luther (+1546) according to the anonymous blog Anonimi della Croce. The problem: excommunication is the exclusion of a Catholic from the sacraments. This decision cannot be reversed in the case of Luther as he has died in the meantime.

R. C. Sproul's popular lecture on Protestant Reformer Martin Luther.

The head of the Lutheran World Federation has called on theologians to remove the obstacles that hinder unity with the Catholic Church. Rev. Dr. Martin Junge made his remarks in a letter commemorating the 50th anniversary of official Lutheran dialogue with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. “Our task as theologians and as pastors should never be to provide explanations as to why unity is not yet possible; our task shall be to creatively and courageously remove the obstacles that still prevent us from the enjoyment of God’s gift of unity,” wrote Junge. He added, “Decades of ecumenical dialogue,...

@import url("chrome://global/skin/aboutReaderControls.css"); catholicworldreport.com Further thoughts on Luther, the Reformation—and G. K. Chesterton – Catholic World Report 6-8 minutes @import url("chrome://global/skin/aboutReaderContent.css"); Left: Martin Luther in 1532 portrait; right: G.K. Chesterton in his study, date unknown (Wikipedia) So, I took some heat from my previous article on the Reformation—“The Bible, the Reformation, and G.K. Chesterton”—because I implied that the Reformation was started by Protestants. Apparently I did not spend enough time attacking the Catholic Church, which, as everyone knows, was responsible for the creation of Martin Luther and company.But since we are still in the midst of our year long observance...

How to Think About Luther?James Kalb Traditionally, Catholics have viewed Luther as a heresiarch, and the Lutheran break from Rome as a religious and civilizational catastrophe. More recently, in line with current ecumenical and pastoral initiatives, that view has softened.The softening has been quite noticeable during the current pontificate. The pope recently took part in a joint liturgy with the Church of Sweden to commemorate the five hundredth anniversary of Luther’s rebellion. He has also suggested informally that a Lutheran married to a Catholic might legitimately decide to receive communion from a Catholic priest, and that disputes between Catholics and...

Despite the radicalism of early Protestantism toward many ancient Catholic "distinctives," such as the Communion of the Saints, Penance, Purgatory, Infused Justification, the Papacy, the priesthood, sacramental marriage, etc., it may surprise many to discover that Martin Luther was rather conservative in some of his doctrinal views, such as on baptismal regeneration, the Eucharist, and particularly the Blessed Virgin Mary. Luther indeed was quite devoted to Our Lady, and retained most of the traditional Marian doctrines which were held then and now by the Catholic Church. This is often not well-documented in Protestant biographies of Luther and histories of the...

Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Robert Barron writes on aleteia.org, that Alec Ryrie's book “Protestants” caused him to look differently at Martin Luther, “for at the core of Luther’s life and theology was an overwhelming experience of grace". He calls Luther’s “religious movement” a “love affair”. And, “Luther was a mystic of grace, someone who had fallen completely in love.” In realty Luther was a drunkard, who called the Mass “the greatest and most terrible abomination” of all “papal idolatries” (Schmalkald Articles). He said things like: “Christ committed adultery first of all with the women at the well about whom St...

Bishops are silent when asked why we are to be "Thankful" CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. (ChurchMilitant.com) - Faithful Catholics in the dioceses of Pittsburgh and Greensburg are concerned about the planned "celebrations" of the Protestant revolt 500 years ago. They are up in arms about joint celebrations last March and upcoming in June and October with Catholics and Protestants, asking for Church Militant's interpretation of the validity of the events, believing these should not be going on. Events such as the regional effort between the Catholic Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Byzantine Catholic Church in southwest Pennsylvania are causing...

'Rust in peace': Robot priest grants auto-blessings in the same German town that Martin Luther launched the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago A robot priest that beams lights from its hands is giving 'auto-blessings' in the same German city where Martin Luther launched the Protestant Reformation. Five hundred years after Luther published the 95 Theses in the town of Wittenberg, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, an evangelical church unveiled an automatic blessing robot for the special celebrations.

Pope: ‘We Are Called to Free Ourselves From the Prejudices’ Pope Issues an Invitation at First Historical Congress Ever Held by Catholics and Protestants in Vatican 500 Years After Luther March 31, 2017Deborah Castellano LubovEcumenism and Interreligious dialogue, Papal Texts, Pope and Holy See © PHOTO.VA - Osservatore Romano “We are called to free ourselves from the prejudices,” and for the Pope, research is a way to do so… Pope Francis stressed this while addressing the International Conference of Study organized by the Pontifical Council for Historical Sciences, on the occasion of the 500-Year Anniversary of the Protestant Reform (1517-2017)...

It is unlikely that Martin Luther set out to shatter authority. Yet the Reformation, which started with the publication of his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517, set in motion a chain of events that fundamentally undermined the idea of authority itself. Luther demanded that the papacy respond to his criticisms of the Church’s moral failings. His actions did not simply call into question the moral authority of the Church. His defiant stand gave voice to a sentiment that would eventually provide legitimation for disobeying all forms of authority. Luther’s challenge to the papacy’s moral status converged with the ascendancy of secular...

Hans Küng, Catholic priest and Swiss theologian, has taken great pains to end the 16th-century schism between Catholics and Protestants since he wrote his doctoral dissertation on "Justification. The Teaching of Karl Barth and a Catholic Reflection" in 1957. He continues that work today with the release of the statement below, which is being published simultaneously by National Catholic Reporter and The Tablet. Küng has collected all his writings on the Justification Doctrine in the first volume of his collected works, which is being published by the German publishing house Herder. Sixty years ago, Küng's work led to the consensus...

Ironically, Beza found his "signal example"8 of how to deal with tyranny and resistance not so much in the work of early Calvinists as in the work of later Lutherans—particularly the Lutheran jurists and theologians who had drafted the Magdeburg Confession of 1550. The Magdeburg Confession was a major distillation of the most advanced Lutheran resistance theories of the day.9 The leaders of the small Saxon city of Magdeburg had drafted this Confession in response to the order of the Holy Roman Emperor to impose by civil law the uniform Catholic doctrines and liturgies being crafted by the Council of...

If you happen to receive a piece of mail from the Vatican this year, don’t be surprised to see the face of Martin Luther. The Vatican office charged with issuing stamps, known as the Philatelic and Numismatic Office, confirmed Tuesday to LifeSiteNews that Luther, who broke away from the Catholic Church in a schism 500 years ago, will be celebrated with a postage stamp in 2017. The office is in charge of the annual commission of stamps, coins, and other commemorative medals. The Vatican regularly issues such memorabilia for special events, including papal trips and holy years. Honoring Luther and...

It happens up the magazine where Bolaffi (the oldest and the largest company in philatelic) announce the stamps to be issued this year. I see the page dedicated to the Statement of the Vatican City, where he announces a << >> issue that astonishes, as he wrote the piece extender: nothing less than a postage stamp of the Holy See that celebrates the five hundred years since the Reformation. Of course, the color image which is above the Vatican paper square is that of Martin Luther. Google translation.