Saturday, March 08, 2008


Oops, maybe he wasn't a heretic after all

Poor Martin Luther, excommunicated over four hundred years ago, has been branded a heretic by Rome and generally blamed by the Roman church for splintering Christianity. Now the news is coming out that Luther and the Roman Catholic church may be mending fences.

Is the Pope Catholic? Now he plans to rehabilitate 'heretic' Martin Luther

The Pope is planning to rehabilitate Martin Luther - whose actions instigated the Protestant Reformation – by arguing that he did not intend to split Christianity but only to purge the Church of corrupt practices.

Benedict XVI will issue his findings on the 16th-century German theologian after discussing him at the papal summer residence, Castelgandolfo, during his annual seminar of 40 fellow theologians, the Ratzinger Schülerkreis.

Luther was and condemned for heresy and excommunicated in 1521 by Pope Leo X, who had initially dismissed him as “a drunken German” and predicted he would “change his mind when sober”.

Vatican insiders say the 80-year-old Pope - himself born in Germany - will argue that his countryman was not a heretic after all.

James White from Alpha & Omega ministries put together a nice little clip on the subject. Kind of makes it hard to take papal infallibility seriously when one pope say Luther is a heretic, an enemy of the church and another says maybe not. Heretic is a loaded word, and excommunication is a big deal. It is pretty hard to take those back.




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