Guest Op-Ed: 500th anniversary of the excommunication of arch-heretic, Martin Luther

Rorate Caeli ^ | December 30, 2020 | Mark Thomas

[ebb tide]

Guest Op-Ed: 500th anniversary of the excommunication of arch-heretic, Martin Luther

This Sunday, January 3, 2021, is the 500^th 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 3^rd 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.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

The greatest damage done to the church was when Emperor Constantine joined, took it over and turned it into a corrupt instrument of persecution for the next 1500 years.

[MayflowerMadam]

Luther, enjoying Heaven now, couldn’t care less about his status of excommunication or otherwise. (Fairy tales are for kids.)

[MayflowerMadam]

Definition: “Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization.” It is not denomination specific. Before RC was invented there was an established Christian, SCRIPTURE-based belief system which Martin Luther learned to embrace.

Consider the possibility/fact that perhaps YOU and your popes are the heretics.

Consider the possibility/fact that Covid might NOT be the biggest hoax in the history of the world.

[kearnyirish2]

The counterreformation gave some credence to Luther.

While I don’t see him as legitimate in any way (as he then forged his own religion, which primarily seemed concerned with the destination of his soul rather than those of all mankind), I can see a comparison to the situation today where priests with valid concerns are dismissed, marginalized, and silenced by a corrupt hierarchy.

[ADSUM]

Luther exposed problems within the Catholic Church and were eventually dealt with.

Yet Luther could have exposed the problems without disobedience and changing God’s Truth and leading many away fro God’s revealed Truth as a heretic.

Luther formulated new and false dogmas and to introduce the evil of schism into the Church of God—or to support, help and adhere to such schismatics, who make it their business to cleave asunder the seamless robe of our Redeemer and the unity of the orthodox faith. https://www.papalencyclicals.net/leo10/l10decet.htm

[Luircin]

ROFL.

I’d only be upset if the Whore of Babylon aka Catholicism DID rescind the excommunication.

Have any more attempts to upset me? I look forward to laughing at them.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“ Yet Luther could have exposed the problems without disobedience and changing God’s Truth and leading many away fro God’s revealed Truth as a heretic.”

Wow! 3 falsehoods claimed in one sentence! Well done!!

[metmom]

We still face great danger. With Luther, there was no warning, just 95 absurd theses appearing out of thin air.

Speaking out against corruption in Catholicism is *absurd*???

That speaks volumes.

[metmom]

Luther called on the Catholic religion to fix the wrongs in it and they refused.

They rejected the call to do righteousness and ex-communicated Luther instead, a very clear statement to God that they were not interested in doing right.

Thus the condition Catholicism finds itself in today.

[metmom]

My own personal interpretation of Scripture when God says, *Thou shalt not murder* tells me that abortion is wrong.

I wonder why that’s a problem for some people.

[MHGinTN]

It is foolishness in action to plead Fatima revelations, since there were zero 'revelations' at the time. The so called revelations only showed up AFTER Lucia was convented for several years. To top that off, the UFO PHOTOGRAPHED during the Fatima episode is wrongly attributed to a chariot of God in the early references from the Fatima episode.

As Rome and its 'other religion' are prone to do, it is the hierarchy who derive the 'secrets' after they put the priest who was in Fatima at the time of the event and took eyewitness accounts down onto paper, after the org sequesters both Lucia and the priest for a few years.

Power of the ORG is derived from a pole of deceptions which, sadly, people are lead astray with.

[metmom]

Small potatoes compared to the smorgasbord RC approach, where each individual decides which teachings they personally accept. Hundreds of millions.

Especially in light of the fact that most Catholics vote democrat and so many support abortion and homosexuality in outright defiance of Catholic doctrine.

You can see what good having one centralized authority determining what the masses are to lockstep believe does.

Exactly nothing.

1.2 billion interpretations of the Catechism of the Catholic church.

[metmom]

Ouch.....

[metmom]

Luther exposed problems within the Catholic Church and were eventually dealt with.

IOW, Luther was right

So why did they ex-communicate him?.

Yet Luther could have exposed the problems without disobedience and changing God’s Truth and leading many away fro God’s revealed Truth as a heretic.

Luther did not change God’s truth.

He translated Scripture into the language of the people so they could read it themselves, and for that Rome condemned him.

And Catholics then turn around and brag how Catholicism (allegedly) gave is the Bible, when their own religion refuses to follow it itself.

And then the Vatican of those days went and stole his translation and passed it off as their own.

Hypocrisy from beginning to end.

[ebb tide]

I consider both Martin Luther and his worshipper, Jorge Bergoglio, to be heretics.

Bergoglio celebrated the 500th anniversary of Luther’s revolt.

[daniel1212]

If you can find out who his living pope is we will donate to FR today.

[daniel1212]

So you’re claiming everyone who has been baptized is saved?

That is because you are not a Catholic in submission to the living duly elected pope and consistent with Vatican 2 (note the latter teaching "is saved/regenerated" is not saying necessarily will be). Who knows what pope you think was the last valid one, since you do not tell us. But now that Catholic forums has shut down then you has one less V2 site to war with.

"there are many who honor Sacred Scripture, taking it as a norm of belief and a pattern of life, and who show a sincere zeal. They lovingly believe in God the Father Almighty and in Christ, the Son of God and Saviour. (Cf. Jn. 16:13) They are consecrated by baptism, in which they are united with Christ," "they are joined with us in the Holy Spirit, for to them too He gives His gifts and graces whereby He is operative among them with His sanctifying power," (LUMEN GENTIUM: 16)

those "who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church," (CCC 838)

"All who have been justified by Faith in Baptism are incorporated into Christ: they therefore have a right to be called Christians, and with good reason are accepted as brothers by the children of the Catholic Church," (Dominus Iesus

[daniel1212]

With Luther, there was no warning, just 95 absurd theses appearing out of thin air.

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."

The "thin air" belongs to those who are not in touch with reality:

Page 1 of 1

Martin Luther's 95 Theses are often considered a charter, a bold declaration of independence for the Protestant church.

But when he wrote nearly 100 points of debate in Latin, Luther was simply inviting fellow academics to a "Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences," the theses' official title. (The debate never was held, because the theses were translated into German and distributed widely, creating an uproar.)

What were indulgences? In the sacrament of penance, Christians confessed sins and found absolution for them. The process of penance involved satisfaction—paying the temporal penalty for those sins. Under certain circumstances, someone who was truly contrite and had confessed his sins could receive partial (or, rarely, complete) remission of temporal punishment by purchasing a letter of indulgence.

In the 95 Theses, Luther did not attack the idea of indulgences, for in Thesis 73 he wrote, " … the pope justly thunders against those who by any means whatsoever contrive harm to the sale of indulgences."

But Luther strongly objected to the abuse of indulgences—most recently under the salesmanship of Johann Tetzel. And in the process, Luther, though probably not fully aware of it, knocked down the pillars supporting many practices in medieval Christianity.

Key Statements

Here are 13 samples of Luther's theses:

1. When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, says "Repent ye," etc., he means that the entire life of the faithful should be a repentance.

2. This statement cannot be understood of the sacrament of penance, i.e., of confession and satisfaction, which is administered by the priesthood.

27. They preach human folly who pretend that as soon as money in the coffer rings a soul from purgatory springs.

32. Those who suppose that on account of their letters of indulgence they are sure of salvation will be eternally damned along with their teachers.

36. Every Christian who truly repents has plenary [full] forgiveness both of punishment and guilt bestowed on him, even without letters of indulgence.

37. Every true Christian, whether living or dead, has a share in all the benefits of Christ and the Church, for God has granted him these, even without letters of indulgence.

45. Christians should be taught that whoever sees a person in need and, instead of helping him, uses his money for an indulgence, obtains not an indulgence of the pope but the displeasure of God.

51. Christians should be taught that the pope ought and would give his own substance to the poor, from whom certain preachers of indulgences extract money, even if he had to sell St. Peter's Cathedral to do it.

81. This shameless preaching of pardons makes it hard even for learned men to defend the pope's honor against calumny or to answer the indubitably shrewd questions of the laity.

82. For example: "Why does not the pope empty purgatory for the sake of holy love … for after all, he does release countless souls for the sake of sordid money contributed for the building of a cathedral? …"

90. To suppress these very telling arguments of the laity by force instead of answering them with adequate reasons would be to expose the church and the pope to the ridicule of their enemies and to render Christians unhappy.

94. We should admonish Christians to follow Christ, their Head, through punishment, death, and hell.

95. And so let them set their trust on entering heaven through many tribulations rather than some false security and peace.

Within two months, Johann Tetzel fired back with his own theses, including: "Christians should be taught that the Pope, by authority of his jurisdiction, is superior to the entire Catholic Church and its councils, and that they should humbly obey his statutes."

Reprinted from "Protestants' Most-Famous Document," the Editors of ChristianHistory.net. Click here to read the original article and for reprint information.

[MHGinTN]

Pio was/is a fraud. The Shroud of Turin exposed Pio as a fraud.

[daniel1212]

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.

What would infer that?:

History relevant to the context of the Reformation:

• Cardinal Bellarmine:

 "Some years before the rise of the Lutheran and Calvinistic heresy, according to the testimony of those who were then alive, there was almost an entire abandonment of equity in ecclesiastical judgments; in morals, no discipline; in sacred literature, no erudition; in divine things, no reverence; religion was almost extinct. (Concio XXVIII. Opp. Vi. 296- Colon 1617, in “A History of the Articles of Religion,” by Charles Hardwick, Cp. 1, p. 10,)

 • The Avignon Papacy (1309-76) relocated the throne to France and was followed by the Western Schism (1378-1417), with three rival popes excommunicating each other and their sees. Referring to the schism of the 14th and 15th centuries,

•Cardinal Ratzinger observed,

"For nearly half a century, the Church was split into two or three obediences that excommunicated one another, so that every Catholic lived under excommunication by one pope or another, and, in the last analysis, no one could say with certainty which of the contenders had right on his side. The Church no longer offered certainty of salvation; she had become questionable in her whole objective form--the true Church, the true pledge of salvation, had to be sought outside the institution.“

"It is against this background of a profoundly shaken ecclesial consciousness that we are to understand that Luther, in the conflict between his search for salvation and the tradition of the Church, ultimately came to experience the Church, not as the guarantor, but as the adversary of salvation. (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, head of the Sacred Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith for the Church of Rome, “Principles of Catholic Theology,” trans. by Sister Mary Frances McCarthy, S.N.D. (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1989) p.196). http://www.whitehorseinn.org/blog/2012/06/13/whos-in-charge-here-the-illusions-of-church-infallibility/)

• Erasmus, in his new edition of the “Enchiridion: “What man of real piety does not perceive with sighs that this is far the most corrupt of all ages? When did iniquity abound with more licentiousness? When was charity so cold?” (“The Evolution of the English Bible: A Historical Sketch of the Successive,” p. 132 by Henry William Hamilton-Hoare)

• Catholic historian Paul Johnson additionally described the existing social situation among the clergy during this period leading up to the Refomation: 

“Probably as many as half the men in orders had ‘wives’ and families. Behind all the New Learning and the theological debates, clerical celibacy was, in its own way, the biggest single issue at the Reformation. It was a great social problem and, other factors being equal, it tended to tip the balance in favour of reform. As a rule, the only hope for a child of a priest was to go into the Church himself, thus unwillingly or with no great enthusiasm, taking vows which he might subsequently regret: the evil tended to perpetuate itself.” (History of Christianity, pgs 269-270)

More, by the grace of God.