SMH.
Posted on 02/18/2017 6:28:09 AM PST by marshmallow
CFN Intro: On February 16 Rorate Caeli and Adelante la Fe posted a comprehensive video interview with the well-known conservative Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Kazakistan that runs about 48 minutes. The interview covered a myriad of topics, but CFN is spotlighting Bishop Schneider’s magnificent response regarding a recent Vatican document that names the heresiarch Martin Luther as a witness to the Gospel. We know you will benefit from Bishop Schneider’s forthright commentary (JV).
Question: A controversial document from the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity equates Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Saint Francis of Borgia with Martin Luther, calling him a witness to the Gospel. We as Catholics are aware of the serious damage Luther caused to the Church, what should be our position if our ecclesiastical authorities invite us to consider Luther as a witness to the Gospel?
Bishop Schneider. Well, this document is issued by the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, this Council has no doctrinal authority. We have no need to take seriously this document, which is objectively wrong. It is against the evidence. We cannot put on the same level Luther and Saint Ignatius. This is a contradiction. Luther cannot be a witness to the Gospel, and the Church will not ask us to accept this because it is only a statement from the pontifical Council so it need not be taken seriously.
When we examine in sincerity and honesty Luther and his work, he caused immense damage to the entire Christianity. He divided Christianity. He is not a witness of the Gospel.He denied almost the entire previous tradition from 1500 years. This cannot be a witness to the Gospel who puts himself as the authority to interpret the Word of God. This is against the Faith which Christ gave us and which the apostles transmitted to us in a basic manner – to reject the Holy Tradition as really a fount of revelation and the entire thinking of the Church which the Holy Ghost guided in the dogmatic and doctrinal issues, and this is the case. Luther did not reject [merely] the disciplinary tradition, the pastoral tradition, but he rejected the fundamental doctrinal tradition of the Church. And the doctrinal tradition of the Church is the Gospel. This is Gospel. And when I reject the substance of the entire Apostolic and immutable constant tradition of the Church (in the case of Luther, 1500 years) I am rejecting the Gospel.
For example, in Kazakistan where I am living there was a holy martyr priest who was beatified, Blessed Oleksa Zarytsky whom my parents had known personally, he blessed me when I was a child. This priest was from the Byzantine Rite, but Catholic. And the Communist asked them not to deny Christ, not to deny the sacraments, but only to deny one point of the Gospel: the primacy of Peter, the papacy (which is in the Gospel). Blessed Oleksa told the tribunal, “If I would deny this point on the primacy of Peter, I will deny entire Gospel. I will be the anti-witness of the entire Gospel.” This is in our time, he died in 1963.
So, in the case of Luther, he rejected the heart of the Church, which is the Eucharist. He rejected the sacrificial essence and substance of the Eucharistic celebration, and this is the heart of the Church – the Eucharist. This is just one example. So how could one be a witness to the Gospel when he rejects the heart of the Church, the sacrificial nature of the Mass itself?
Luther called the Mass an invention of the devil, a blasphemy. He called the papacy an invention of satan. How can we name this person as a witness? When we do this, we don’t believe in the sacrificial character of the Mass, or we don’t believe in the primacy of Peter, or we don’t believe in the Catholic manner of the unchangeable doctrinal tradition of the Church, or we are committing a lie and playing only a game of political correctness. This is very dishonest. Or we have an intellectual position of relativism, that truth and untruth are the same. And so in this case when this document from the Pontifical Council states that Luther is more or less the same level as St. Ignatius, they are putting truth and error at the same level. This is the position of philosophical and theological relativism. And this is very dangerous.
So I think we need not take this document seriously, because it has no doctrinal authority. It is in itself contradictory and completely wrong. This document will not last for many years. Because the Church is more powerful, the unchangeable truth is more powerful than this weak and very wrong document. It will pass away with time.
ROTFLMAO! “Luther not a witness to the gospel.” That is truly fake news.
Posting more of this stuff is wicked.
What is your point?
You diminish the value of FR by doing so.
SMH.
And the doctrinal tradition of the Church is the Gospel.”
LOL.
Well, if you put it that way...then...obviously Luther is NOT a witness.
From the “one true” church that practices idolatry, praying to saints and Mary worshiping.
Simply amazing.
Kinda like those so-called "pastoral" Vatican II documents? Honestly. Does this man really believe what he is saying?
Catholics are NOT taught to “worship” Mary!
If I posted this on facebook would immediately be denounced as a racist.p for criticizing Martin King. Most don’t know who Martin Luther is or what he did.
I believe this is a silly. What is so sad to me is I know there are many FReepers who participate in the various religion threads who don’t understand the gospel whatsoever. And let’s be clear, the Bible presents only one gospel that is “the power of God unto salvation.”
Below is a short video presentation of the gospel. It’s a well-made short film that was released two weeks ago. I urge one and all to watch it. I talked to Dr. White, one of the men in the film, a week before it was released. His hope, his prayer, is that the Lord would be pleased to use this to soften hearts and awaken many to the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.
Unpopular the Movie
https://youtu.be/97k4z6Qe7JM
Oh yeah, that's right, I forgot. It's called 'veneration'. LOL!
To be clear, I agree with Bishop Schneider re: Luther.
Saying ‘he divided the church’ is giving him much more power than ‘he was a witness of the Gospel.’
What are you talking about? This is an important statement by a bishop against a document issued by the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. Catholics need to read it and understand they're not bound by it: "...this Council has no doctrinal authority. We have no need to take seriously this document, which is objectively wrong."
You might learn the difference between veneration and worship.
Have you ever asked anyone to pray for you?
Are you unaware that the prayers to Mary are simply asking here to pray for us, as she is in the presence of Christ?
Did not Moses and Elijah appear with the living Christ in front of Peter and other Apostles?
Do you deny that they are in heaven with Christ?
Yep.
But what’s a little syncretic idolatry as long as it’s a means of accomplishing the ends... of assuming dominion.
They are, after all, the brainworks of the farm. It is for our benefit that they eat all the apples and drink all the milk... and whiskey.
Please cite the Scripture that requires Mary to pray on our behalf.
Please cite Scripture that requires your friends and family to pray for you.
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