Posted on 08/12/2016 3:59:59 PM PDT by ebb tide
Germany’s Catholic bishops have praised Martin Luther as a “Gospel witness and teacher of the faith” and called for closer ties with Protestants.
In a 206-page report, “The Reformation in Ecumenical Perspective”, Bishop Gerhard Feige of Magdeburg, chairman of the German bishops’ ecumenical commission, said the “history of the Reformation has encountered a changeable reception in the Catholic Church, where its events and protagonists were long seen in a negative, derogatory light”.
“While the wounds are still felt to the present day, it is gratifying that Catholic theology has succeeded, in the meantime, in soberly reconsidering the events of the 16th century,” he said in the report, published this week by Germany’s Bonn-based bishops’ conference.
Bishop Feige said the “history and consequences” of the Reformation would be debated during its upcoming 500th anniversary, but added that there was consensus that previous mutual condemnations were invalid.
“Memories of the Reformation and the subsequent separation of Western Christianity are not free from pain,” Bishop Feige said. “But through lengthy ecumenical dialogue, the theological differences rooted in the period have been re-evaluated – as is documented in the work presented by our ecumenical commission.”
Martin Lazar, the Magdeburg diocesan spokesman, told Catholic News Service on Wednesday that the Reformation still caused tensions in Germany, especially “in religiously separated families.”
The bishops’ report said the “Catholic Church may recognise today what was important in the Reformation – namely, that Sacred Scripture is the centre and standard for all Christian life.
“Connected with this is Martin Luther’s fundamental insight that God’s self-revelation in Jesus Christ for the salvation of the people is proclaimed in the Gospel – that Jesus Christ is the centre of Scripture and the only mediator.”
The Reformation is traditionally dated from the October 1517 publication of Luther’s 95 Theses, questioning the sale of indulgences and the Gospel foundations of papal authority.
Luther was excommunicated by Pope Leo X in January 1521 and outlawed by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
The German bishops describe Luther as “a religious pathfinder, Gospel witness and teacher of the faith,” whose “concern for renewal in repentance and conversion” had not received an “adequate hearing” in Rome.
They said the reformer’s work still posed a “theological and spiritual challenge” and had “ecclesial and political implications for understanding the Church and the Magisterium.”
The report said a joint Catholic-Lutheran statement in 1980 commemorating the Augsburg Confession, which set out the new Lutheran faith, had been crucial in bringing churches closer, while another ecumenical statement in 1983, on the 500th anniversary of Luther’s birth, had started an “intensive engagement” with the reformer’s work.
A historic 1999 joint declaration on the doctrine of justification was a “milestone in ecumenical dialogue,” the report said, by recognising that remaining differences should “no longer have a church-dividing effect.”
The bishops’ report includes June 2015 conciliatory letters between the German bishops’ conference president, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, and Lutheran Bishop Heinrich Strohm, president of the Evangelical Church of Germany, outlining plans for a 2017 ecumenical pilgrimage to the Holy Land and a Lent service devoted to “healing memories.”
In an interview with CNS, the ecumenical commission’s deputy chairman, Bishop Heinz Algermissen of Fulda, said Catholic-Lutheran ties had improved since the Second Vatican Council, but that churches must work for “visible unity, not just reconciled diversity.”
“This means not only praying together, but meeting the challenge of speaking with one voice as Christians when we are all challenged by aggressive atheism and secularism, as well as by [radicalised] Islam. Otherwise we will lose more and more ground,” he said.
“In commemorating the Reformation, we cannot just see it as a jubilee, but should also admit our guilt for past errors and repent on both sides for the past 500 years,” he added.
Catholics make up 29 per cent of Germany’s 82 million inhabitants, with the Evangelical Church of Germany accounting for 27 per cent, although all denominations have faced declining membership.
More cherry-picking on the protestants part? Did not the waiters fulfill the Blessed Mother's command? And did not Jesus work His first miracle, even though He had just said, "[4] Woman, what is that to me and to thee? my hour is not yet come."
Wow...upon this one verse roman catholicism attempts to build the entire structure of its deification and worship of Mary.
First error. Mary is never referred to in the New Testament as the "Blessed Mother".
She is blessed among women (Lk 1:42), all generations will count her blessed (Lk 1:48).
The apparitions roman catholicism claims to be Mary are not Mary of the Bible. It is one of the false prophets John warned us about in his writings (1 John 4:1).
John also tells us to test the spirits to see if they are from God.
The mother of Christ would not tell anyone to wear a scapular to keep themselves out of the hell fire as this would be contrary to the words of her Son. Jesus never said to wear a piece of cloth to keep you out of hell. He did tell us in more than one place to believe in Him for our forgiveness and eternal life.
Further, the mother of Christ would not request this: On 13 October 1917 the children surrounded by a crowd of 70.000 persons under a torrential rain, Lucy asked again of the Lady:"What do you want from me?" she answered: "I am the Lady of the Rosary, I desire here a chapel in my honor to be built,...."
The apparition that appeared at Guadalupe also requested a chapel in her honor.
Some of the additional "promises" from the apparition at Fatima (http://www.fatima.org/essentials/requests/promises.asp):
You shall obtain all you ask of Me by the recitation of the Rosary.
If this is the case there should never be a poor or sick roman catholic in the world.
I have obtained from My Divine Son, that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors, the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death.
This is again a falsehood as we already have the Holy Spirit and Jesus Himself interceding for us on a continual basis. For the roman catholic this is somehow insufficient.
Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred mysteries, shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life.
Again, if the first part of this "promise" is true, there shouldn't be a poor or sick catholic in the world.
If any roman catholic has ever died an unprovided death (defined as unexpected and unprepared for) the promise is bogus. Roman catholics every day die from unexpected deaths in car accidents, heart attacks, etc.
The only way one becomes worthy of eternal life is to have faith in Christ and Christ alone.
The false promises of these apparitions are all designed to take away from the sole authority of Christ and only His ability to save us. There may be some nice words mixed in but as mixing in the wrong ingredient ruins the cake so does mixing in the falsehoods of these apparitions and claiming they are from Heaven.
Sorry ebb tide. Still on you bro.
1. I'm not a Lutheran. Never have been. Never will be. Please revert back a few posts to understand that I believe the word of God above all men. You will always find people who believe a falsehood - like those you've espoused on this thread. When that happens, I must reject them.
2. A Lutheran rosary will not get you eternal life bro. Throw away your beads and hexagrams and amulets and cast yourself on Christ alone for eternal life.
Luther held to the idea and devotional practice of the veneration of Mary and expressed this on innumerable occasions with the most effusive language:
The veneration of Mary is inscribed in the very depths of the human heart. (Sermon, September 1, 1522).
[She is the] highest woman and the noblest gem in Christianity after Christ. ..She is nobility, wisdom, and holiness personified. We can never honor her enough. Still honor and praise must be given to her in such a way as to injure neither Christ nor the Scriptures. (Sermon, Christmas, 1531).
No woman is like you. You are more than Eve or Sarah, blessed above all nobility, wisdom, and sanctity. (Sermon, Feast of the Visitation. 1537).
One should honor Mary as she herself wished and as she expressed it in the Magnificat. She praised God for his deeds. How then can we praise her? The true honor of Mary is the honor of God, the praise of God's grace.. .Mary is nothing for the sake of herself, but for the sake of Christ...Mary does not wish that we come to her, but through her to God. (Explanation of the Magnificat, 1521).
Luther goes even further, and gives the Blessed Virgin the exalted position of "Spiritual Mother" for Christians, much the same as in Catholic piety:
It is the consolation and the superabundant goodness of God, that man is able to exult in such a treasure. Mary is his true Mother, Christ is his brother. God is his father. (Sermon. Christmas, 1522)
Mary is the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of all of us even though it was Christ alone who reposed on her knees...If he is ours, we ought to be in his situation; there where he is, we ought also to be and all that he has ought to be ours, and his mother is also our mother. (Sermon, Christmas, 1529).
Again, still on you bro.
Anyone who obeys the authority of Scripture, knows veneration of Mary is made up. It must be rejected.
Nor will it get you eternal life. So let's update this: beads, hexagrams, chinese scapulars, worship of Mary as a demigoddess, will all fail to the utmost to get you eternal life.
It is sad to see you reject what Christ teaches and grasp at everything else. I wish you eternal life.
LCMS does not doctrinally teach Mary was ‘ever virgin’.
That’s my point, xone. Lutherans are very quiet on this belief expressed by Luther. It’s not mentioned in the Augsburg Confession or the Large Confession. The closest I could find was the mention in the Solid Declaration on the Person of Christ that Mary “nevertheless remained a virgin.” And from the context it was likely that this statement was only in reference to the birth of Jesus.
Authoritative, WikiHow! LoL!
Why do you think that is? Perhaps because it is Luther's opinion not supported by scripture. It isn't mentioned in any of the doctrinal statements for that reason. It isn't in Luther's Catechism.
Now are Catholics 'very quiet' about Pope Francis' support and exhortation of socialist principles, global warming, moral equivalence of Catholics and Muslims? Wait, isn't that last one in the Catholic Catechism that PF had nothing to do with? I guess Catholics are being 'very quiet' on Catholic doctrinal issues as well.
Luther said alot of things, as all Christians do, not all of them conform to what the Bible teaches. Those still living should be striving to conform themselves to God's Word, not our own desires and thoughts, no matter how pious we believe them to be.
I’ve made my point.
Peace,
Rich
I submit to the Word of God.
Unless it’s a hard saying where one has to go through mental gymnastics to try and figure out what He must have meant, because He couldn’t possibly mean what He actually said over and again.
Nope
For Catholics; it's the Corporate church of Rome: or ELSE!
Can't you READ?
Do what HE tells you.
That's supposed be a COMMAND of MARY?
Fortunately, the Word of God rarely has that problem. Salvation is s simple, a child can understand.
The problem is showing people their pagan ideas are not found in Scripture. They simply do not care. They’d rather try to earn merit of their own than accept His freely, by grace.
Fortunately, for all of us, God alone draws men to Himself in His own time and in His own way. Christ came to save the ungodly and not those who insist on their own righteousness.
Best
Fortunately, the Word of God rarely has that problem. Salvation is s simple, a child can understand.
The problem is showing people their pagan ideas are not found in Scripture. They simply do not care. They’d rather try to earn merit of their own than accept His freely, by grace.
Fortunately, for all of us, God alone draws men to Himself in His own time and in His own way. Christ came to save the ungodly and not those who insist on their own righteousness.
Best
Everybody is wrong except for you!
Again, Scripture padding.
Everybody is wrong except for Catholics!
Rome not only strays from scriptures, it adds to "scriptures" to it's own, imaginary whims: Say 5 Hail Marys and thou shalt be forgiven.
Why?
HMMMmmm...
I wonder where he got THIS idea???
Pope Stephen VI (896–897), who had his predecessor Pope Formosus exhumed, tried, de-fingered, briefly reburied, and thrown in the Tiber.[1]
Pope John XII (955–964), who gave land to a mistress, murdered several people, and was killed by a man who caught him in bed with his wife.
Pope Benedict IX (1032–1044, 1045, 1047–1048), who "sold" the Papacy
Pope Boniface VIII (1294–1303), who is lampooned in Dante's Divine Comedy
Pope Urban VI (1378–1389), who complained that he did not hear enough screaming when Cardinals who had conspired against him were tortured.[2]
Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503), a Borgia, who was guilty of nepotism and whose unattended corpse swelled until it could barely fit in a coffin.[3]
Pope Leo X (1513–1521), a spendthrift member of the Medici family who once spent 1/7 of his predecessors' reserves on a single ceremony[4]
Pope Clement VII (1523–1534), also a Medici, whose power-politicking with France, Spain, and Germany got Rome sacked.
Claim Victory! and leave the field of battle.
You VIPERS!
You whitewashed tombs!!
Unless you drink my Blood...
I see what you mean.
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