Posted on 10/27/2021 7:02:05 AM PDT by ebb tide
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis met with a group of some five hundred Lutherans from Germany on Monday morning as part of an ecumenical pilgrimage called “better together.” The statue of Luther erected for the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation appeared once again on the stage of the Vatican’s Paul VI hall.
The 500 pilgrims, made up of young Catholics and Lutherans from central Germany, greeted the Pope with a song. They had traveled from Germany to Rome as part of a joined initiative of the office for youth ministry of the Diocese of Magdeburg and the evangelical church of central Germany.
In his address to the pilgrims, the Pope first alluded to the group’s previous visit in October of 2016, to celebrate the anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
“Some of you had already taken part in the ecumenical pilgrimage ‘with Luther to the Pope’ which took place five years ago,” he said.
Francis then referred to the song sung by the pilgrims to greet him at the beginning of the audience, and explained that singing together is a way to unite.
“At the beginning of this audience, you greeted me with a song. Singing unites,” he said. “In the choir, no one is alone. It is important to listen to others,” he continued, adding that he hoped for the same readiness to hear one another in the church, which he claimed will be brought about by the synodal path.
He invited the pilgrims to “listen to the melody of God” and to “open their hearts” as well as their ears.
“Always turn your ears to the melody of God in your lives,” he said, “this way, from many voices, a single song will be heard. That’s also how we bring about ecumenism, in Germany, and in many other parts of the world.”
Back in 2016, the sight came as a shock to many Catholics because Luther was excommunicated and his theses rejected by Pope Leo X in 1520. The split he caused in Christianity remains one of the most damaging in the Church’s 2,000-year history.
Some Catholics have also criticized Pope Francis for his approach to ecumenism, often citing Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Mortalium Animos which had condemned the ecumenical movement of the 1920s. Others have challenged the synodal path Francis praised in his address to the Lutheran pilgrims, and have accused it of “paving the way towards schism.”
Despite his critics, Francis has continued to promote ecumenism throughout his pontificate.
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis met with a group of some five hundred Lutherans from Germany on Monday morning as part of an ecumenical pilgrimage called “better together.” The statue of Luther erected for the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation appeared once again on the stage of the Vatican’s Paul VI hall.
The 500 pilgrims, made up of young Catholics and Lutherans from central Germany, greeted the Pope with a song. They had traveled from Germany to Rome as part of a joined initiative of the office for youth ministry of the Diocese of Magdeburg and the evangelical church of central Germany.
In his address to the pilgrims, the Pope first alluded to the group’s previous visit in October of 2016, to celebrate the anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
“Some of you had already taken part in the ecumenical pilgrimage ‘with Luther to the Pope’ which took place five years ago,” he said.
Francis then referred to the song sung by the pilgrims to greet him at the beginning of the audience, and explained that singing together is a way to unite.
“At the beginning of this audience, you greeted me with a song. Singing unites,” he said. “In the choir, no one is alone. It is important to listen to others,” he continued, adding that he hoped for the same readiness to hear one another in the church, which he claimed will be brought about by the synodal path.
He invited the pilgrims to “listen to the melody of God” and to “open their hearts” as well as their ears.
“Always turn your ears to the melody of God in your lives,” he said, “this way, from many voices, a single song will be heard. That’s also how we bring about ecumenism, in Germany, and in many other parts of the world.”
Back in 2016, the sight came as a shock to many Catholics because Luther was excommunicated and his theses rejected by Pope Leo X in 1520. The split he caused in Christianity remains one of the most damaging in the Church’s 2,000-year history.
Some Catholics have also criticized Pope Francis for his approach to ecumenism, often citing Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Mortalium Animos which had condemned the ecumenical movement of the 1920s. Others have challenged the synodal path Francis praised in his address to the Lutheran pilgrims, and have accused it of “paving the way towards schism.”
Despite his critics, Francis has continued to promote ecumenism throughout his pontificate.
Ping
Honestly, Martin Luther provided a most needed sanity check against the Catholic church’s wrongful practices and beliefs.
It still hasn’t learned, apparently.
Martin Luther’s work was one of history’s first significant Freedom of Speech landmarks.
Silly me. I read it as Martin Luther King.
Are you referring to “On the Jews and their lies”?
It is an automatic connection.
I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, as a Lutheran I evidently stand with Luther’s critique of the church’s doctrine as it was in the early 1500s, and would hope that one day Rome will recognize this. On the other hand, the German “Lutherans” who inhabited the Vatican are either all or almost all progressive useful idiots who don’t deserve to be called Lutherans, more heretical themselves than the church was back then. Francis standing with them places himself in greater divine jeopardy than if he had simply stuck with the old line and left Lutheranism alone.
Excellent to display Blessed Saint Martin Luther!
May Rome someday return to the Gospel of Grace.
You mean like when he told his followers to wash their hands in the Papists’ blood?
where was the “barf alert”??
Prayers up for Holy Mother Church.
“Enjoy your Pope.”
No. His publication of the Ninety-Five Theses, even after Pope Leo X told him NOT to do it. At that point in human history the Holy Roman Church represented the closest thing to a global government that has ever existed, before or since. It was nearly omnipotent.
Yet he still defied them and struck a blow for freedom.
Luther’s goal was to reform the church (hence the term “reformation”), not to split it or start a new one. The split occurred when he was excommunicated. Leo X btw was a head of the Medici family who ruled Florence and used the power of the Papal States to attack enemies of his family regime. He is best known for selling indulgences to raise money for the new St. Peter’s Basilica he was building. This practice was one which outraged Luther.
blasphemy?
While I believe Luther initially had the noblest intentions in reforming the Church, his opposition to the peasants during the Peasants Revolt shows his views on freedom.
Nothing like holding a statue of your enemy hostage.
Expect the Vatican to break it up and burn it and throw the ashes in the river, like they did with other Bible believers. (Hus)(See Fox’s “Book of Martyrs”).
Maybe they will try to get the Lutherans to pray to it. You know, like all the other images and gods they pray to.
Expect a few ELCA members to take them up on this, because since the ELCA has abandoned the Bible, and they now have active homosexuals pastoring their churches too, none of them seem to understand that they have become apostate as well.
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