Posted on 09/14/2017 10:58:03 AM PDT by ebb tide
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.
I’m sure Martin Luther couldn’t care less.
Luther’s estate or descendants should file a restraining order.
Seven days to go! Hold fats! Jesus is coming for us!
This is like an ex-girlfriend you are finished with announcing she will accept you back.
Like a creepy stalker with photos all over their wall of their interest...
Protestants ain’t going back. I half expect we will find our tires slashed one morning.
Hillary already absolved!
This is as bad as lds baptism for the dead.
How does he have the authority to do that?
No, we're not. I don't need a creepy SJW in the Vatican who majored in Marxist social engineering to arrange my salvation.
(Please understand, I don't hate on Catholics. I know a ton of awesome ones, and I went to their Mass as a guest when I was a kid. I don't hate on anybody. People are a one-at-a-time thing to me.)
Seven days to go! Hold fats! Jesus is coming for us!
Sorry about that. I have dyslexia of the fingers as well as the mind.
“Please understand, I don’t hate on Catholics.” I understand and I believe you. Many of us believing and practicing Catholics are being driven nuts by this Pope.
What kind of Protestant are you, by the way? My favorite Protestant denomination is Missouri Synod Lutheran.
Francis will probably try to make a case for Luther’s sainthood.
“This decision cannot be reversed in the case of Luther as he has died in the meantime.”
So? Bodily, yes, but his spirit lives on. Isn’t the continued praying for the deceased, or praying (*ahem* talking) to the saints, premised on the continuing spiritual life of a person as simply liberated from corporeal restraint? then why would mere bodily death deny one reversal of excommunication?
Of course he should. Luther tremendously expanded the reach of Christianity by observing it extends beyond human-imposed limits, and spawned the notion that everyone should have access to God’s Word without relying on obligatory fallible human intervention.
(And should one retort that “matters of worship are infallible”, then I’d contend that means excommunication is irreversible, be the subject dead or alive.)
Who gives a rip what the Poop says or thinks.
This is very possible. We already see an incredible rapproachment between Islam and Catholicism with the Pope calling Allah, “God”, and praying in the Blue Mosque. I would also predict that a reunification is coming between the Russian Orthodox Church and RCC. All of this is making way for the False Prophet of Revelation 13. Maranatha!
I share that sentiment. My closest friend for decades is the most devout Catholic I have ever met (more than some priests and nuns I have known).
I nevertheless have problems with the Catholic Church, not only doctrinal but procedural. As a semi-professional chorister, I have sung in Catholic churches and cathedrals many times in both America and Europe (sometimes paid, usually gratis). I ceased to do so where I live because the local diocese decided that I, a celibate Christian male (and virgin, it so happens) would not be allowed to use the Men’s Room while boys who might use the facility were in the building.
I see: The Catholic Church conceals and indulges homoerotic pedophiles, gets caught for doing so for decades, refuses to adequately address the Elephant in the Sanctuary, and then punishes all men - ALL MEN, including innocent laity - instead of rooting out the rot within the clergy. That alone proves that communistic one-size-fits-all, lowest-common-denominator philosophy has overtaken the Catholic Church, quite apart from the attitude and behavior of the current Pope.
I was not about to approbate that unChristian injustice; I have refused to sing there ever since.
By the bye, I was raised in the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. Having been trained by parochial schooling and having served in church ministry, I have over the years met scores of clergy in many denominations.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.