Posted on 01/02/2021 6:05:47 PM PST by ebb tide
This Sunday, January 3, 2021, is the 500th anniversary of the excommunication of Martin Luther as a heretic and schismatic – the greatest damage ever done to the Holy Catholic Church. He died unrepentant, without the sacraments and outside the One True Church.
Yes, Pope Leo X, who issued the excommunication decree and the previous Exsurge Domine warning (6/15/1520) to Luther, had a mixed record of papal righteousness – but in this event he is nearly unsurpassed and fairly vindicated.
In this writer's view, these documents are two of the most formidable, necessary and courageous decrees emanating from the Chair of Peter, defending the Holy Roman Catholic Church from doctrinal attack. They were subsequently, fully upheld by the Council of Trent – also one of the greatest Councils in Church history – to which we owe very much, especially on the Eucharist!
We still face great danger. With Luther, there was no warning, just 95 absurd theses appearing out of thin air.
Here today, we had a warning in 1917 at Fatima. “Russia will spread her errors throughout the world,” did Our Lady alert the three children and us Catholics.
We feel these effects today – a far more serious warning than Luther. In full deference to Our Lady and the Most Holy Trinity – it is extremely doubtful (despite assertions to the contrary) that the full, correct Consecration to Russia was done; or that the decisive 3rd Secret text was totally revealed.
The errors, it is said, will lead to “The Great Apostasy.” There seems no appetite in the Vatican, at any level, to humbly accept and remedy those grave errors. Rather, a desire to hurtle into the future with Pachamama; Amazon Culture; ecology; and global secular solutions – as moral virtue is completely ignored and vocations and faithful Catholics disappear at record speeds.
Will the Church (and our Country) continue its decline? Will we still continue to receive God’s Divine Mercy and Graces? Are we due for a severe Divine Chastisement?
I am not going to advance an opinion here – only to charitably say, we would all do well to place our own souls in a state of grace, and urge our families, friends and others to do the same.
And Pray. God is very good.
Ping
THANK GOD! For Blessed Saint Father Martin Luther!!
Like every man God uses greatly, he was flawed.
Yet God used Saint Luther to recover the Gospel of Grace and to lead millions to salvation!
Thank you for posting this thread and for making it an open thread.
This op-ed inadvertently illustrates precisely why the Reformation was necessary. Works-based, authoritarian, superstitious religion versus salvation by grace alone, through faith alone.
Luther died with every sin covered, no sacraments necessary, and in the Bride of Christ for all eternity!
Rome has never repented and now sadly, is largely gay.
Has the author actually read the 95 Theses? We can discuss whether or not they reflect the actual teaching of the church at its beginning, but they are far fron absurd, and came from a study of Scripture, not "out of thin air."
“no warning, just 95 absurd theses appearing out of thin air.”
LOL, yeah. They was blindsided! Caught them right outta the blue, right between selling forgiveness for cash and torturing heretics.
Lotta Papal bull right there.
Reprobate Rome
So I certainly wouldn't give credence to any claim from Pio.
Always appealing to the opinions of “saints.” How about what Jesus said?
May almighty God have mercy on you.
I don’t really believe you want God to have mercy on anybody who disagrees with you.
The Catholic Church can withhold the Sacrament of the Eucharist, but it cannot reverse the work of God in the Sacrament of Baptism. It is possible, if there is a Purgatory, that Luther is there, but if God’s Word is always true, and it is because He cannot lie and does not change, it is impossible for Luther to be in hell, for he was saved through baptism.
The Catholic Church has had profoundly flawed Popes, including the 3, 500 yrs ago. The Church profoundly needed Reformation, so does the Church at this time. There is error everywhere.
Luther
With conscience cocked to listen for the thunder,
He saw the Devil busy in the wind,
Over the chiming steeples and then under
The doors of nuns and doctors who sinned.
What apparatus could stave off disaster
Or cut the brambles of man’s error down?
Flesh was a silent dog that bites its master,
World a still pond in which its children drown.
The fuse of Judgement spluttered in his head:
“Lord, smoke these honeyed insects from their hives.
All Works, Great Men, Societies are bad.
The Just shall live by Faith...” he cried in dread.
And men and women of the world were glad,
Who’d never cared or trembled in their lives.
WH Auden
“ May almighty God have mercy on you.
He has through Christ and eternal life!
So you’re claiming everyone who has been baptized is saved?
That’s the first I ever heard of that. But it explains Luther’s “Sin, and let your sins be bold”.
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