“It is unfair to blame Luther’s movement for the fights that broke out between factions”
Funny, it doesn’t seem to be unfair to blame any Catholic for anything that any other Catholic did, or, more often, allegedly did.
We are responsible for the unintended consequences of our actions as well as for our intent. He intended this, but his actions produced that. It is in no way wrongful to take note of what actually happened.
Since I'm not the one lobbing attacks at Catholics on this thread, and frequently defend on FR the idea of reconciling the Catholic Church with other branches of Christianity in meaningful ways, there's no reason to respond to me, or anyone else for that matter, by claiming that non-Catholic Christians deserve tit for tat. The Reformation was a long process involving many, many actors. Luther played a role, but so did many others. The fundamental dispute was theological, and in no way did Luther storm the Vatican with an army. He tacked his thesis on a church door in Germany. Sort of like posting on FR. The storms had been brewing in many quarters for many years in many nations, and took half a century even to stop the open warfare, which the reigning political system, the Holy Roman Empire, did not or could not quell. There's lots of accountability to go around; but the time for blame is long past -- unless you need to blame others in order to believe what you believe about Jesus Christ. I really don't think you need to. Your Church is valid and consistent. Isn't that enough?
We are responsible for the unintended consequences of our actions as well as for our intent. He intended this, but his actions produced that. It is in no way wrongful to take note of what actually happened.
That's like saying that Dwight Eisenhower intended the breakdown of the family when he instituted the interstate road system we now all take for granted, since it enabled teenagers to travel or go to college far from home and had an increasing rate of sex in the back of cars, resulting in more teen pregnancies. Yep, all Ike's fault.
Or how about Ronald Reagan, who signed into law the "no-fault" divorce legislation in an attempt to help seriously broken families to separate without going broke and impoverishing their children. Is he solely to blame for the breakdown of the family? What about all the other forces in society that were operating at the same time, like the hippie back-to-nature movement, feminism, the Sexual Revolution driven in no small part by the eugenics and birth control movements of the 30s and the industrial production of the Pill in the 60s, whose manufacturers lobbied DC extensively? Was that all Reagan's fault?
Historic events happen in context, and those contexts are very complex. It is useless to try to continue to blame Luther for theological differences that have stood the test of time for 400 years. There are as many people growing up in one tradition who switch to the other as there are in the other direction, if the many deathbed conversions in my multi-generational mixed family of Catholics and Protestants is any example. Why carry forward old blames and hatreds? It's like saying Obamacare all Bush's fault.