Bergoglio's Reform Was Written Before. By Martin Luther

Edit: the lucidity and calm of Sandro Magister is something to be grateful for, as are the contributions by these academic voices we scarcely hear from in the US.
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Much has been written in sketching an appraisal of the first five years of the pontificate of Francis and of his real or imaginary “revolution.”
But rarely, if ever, with the acuteness and extensive scope of the analysis published below.
The author, Roberto Pertici, 66, is a professor of contemporary history at the university of Bergamo and has focused his studies on Italian culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with particular attention to relations between Church and state.
His essay is being issued for the very first time on Settimo Cielo.
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THE END OF “ROMAN CATHOLICISM?”

by Roberto Pertici
1. At this point in the pontificate of Francis, I believe it can be reasonably maintained that this marks the twilight of that imposing historical reality which can be defined as “Roman Catholicism.”
This does not mean, properly understood, that the Catholic Church is coming to an end, but that what is fading is the way in which it has historically structured and represented itself in recent centuries.
It seems evident to me, in fact, that this is the plan being deliberately pursued by the “brain trust” that has clustered around Francis: a plan understood both as an extreme response to the crisis in relations between the Church and the modern world, and as a precondition for a renewed ecumenical course together with the other Christian confessions, especially the Protestant.
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Dialog With the Lutheran World Federation at the Cost of Catholic Identity

Pope Francis with Munip Jounan, President of the Lutheran World
Federation on 31 October, 2016 in Lund.

With "Joint Declaration" of Lund, Pope Francis has signed a protestant document on 31 October 2016. In this way he brought the Protestants an ecumenical gift for the Lutheran Jubilee which he put in place of essential dimensions of  Catholic Church identity.

A guest contribution by Hubert Hecker.

October 31, 2016 is certainly considered the eve of the Protestant Reformation Jubilee. On that date Pope Francis traveled to the Swedish city of Lund. The Lutheran World Federation had been founded in 1947.  There are 145 Lutheran communities with 70 million Protestants are members included in this umbrella organization. In Lund, Pope Francis signed a "Joint Declaration" for the Catholic Church and Munip Jounan for the Lutheran World Federation.

Two texts in contradiction

In the introduction,

• That "we begin with the memorial of 500 years of Reformation."
• Furthermore, "we deplore before Christ that Lutherans and Catholics have wounded the visible unity of the Church . ...
• Many members of our communities yearn to receive the Eucharist in a meal as a concrete expression of full unity . ...
• If we commit ourselves to move from conflict to fellowship, we do this as part of the one body of Christ , into which we have all been incorporated through baptism. ... "

According to the Catholic catechism, believers are introduced into the Church through the sacrament of baptism as members of the body of Christ. According to the dogmatic Council document, Lumen Gentium No. 8 , the "Church" and "Body of Christ" are to be understood as follows: Jesus Christ wrote "His holy Church ... here on earth as a visible structure, and bears it as such unceasingly. ... The only complex reality - the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church ... " is the society equipped with hierarchical organs and the mysterious body of Christ, the visible assembly and  spiritual community. This Church is realized in the Catholic Church, led by the successor of Peter and the bishops in communion with him. This does not exclude that there are various elements of sanctification and truth outside their structure. "This is particularly true of the separate sister churches of Orthodoxy and the ecclesial" communities" of Protestantism.

The Ecumenism decree also states that only the Catholic Church has the full abundance of the means of salvation which the Lord has entrusted to Peter and the apostleship to constitute the Church as "the one Christian body on earth, to which all are fully incorporated who are already in some way a part of the people of God" (Unitatis redintegratio, No. 3).

The Pope signed a Protestant statement

Already, on the first close reading of the two published document excerpts, the impression appeared that they were contradictory in essential points. More precisely, the Joint Declaration reflects the Protestant church image, which is contrary to the Catholic understanding of the Church in the Council. It is precisely in the understanding of the Church that the "most serious dogmatic contrast" exists between Lutherans and Catholics, according to Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller in his lecture at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. The differences in questions concerning the Church, office, and sacraments should not be reduced to "striking formulas."

This is exactly what the Joint Declaration of 31 October is.  It seems to be the least common denominator in Church doctrine. However, a Lutheran-style church understanding has emerged. This means a weakening, if not a departure from the Catholic ecclesiology. Accordingly, the Pope has signed a Protestant statement. He brings an ecumenical guest gift to the Protestants at the Lutheran Jubilee, by displacing essential dimensions of the Catholic Church identity.

The EKD emphasizes the ecclesiastical identity of the Protestants ...

The EKD [Evangelische Kirche Deutschland] President Heinrich Bedford-Strohm warned at his Vatican visit in early February: "There should be" no homogenization, which eats one's own. We want to restrain Church dividing identity." (FAZ 7. 2. 2017). The Protestants emphasize their ecclesiastical identity - in contrast to Catholic doctrine. In the Lunder Declaration they have introduced their self-understanding of church. This is not to blame them. But the Pope and his advisers are accused of not having anchored the Catholic, "Church dividing identity" in the Joint Declaration. In so far as the pope signs the Lutheran image of the Church as a common denominator, the pope has permitted the "character" of the Catholic Church to be swallowed down in the supposedly "common," but actually Protestant decline.

... the Pope wants ecumenical dialogue at all costs - even his own identity.

This is shown in the individual statements of the Joint Declaration:

What is with the pope as the head of the Catholic Church commemorating the Reformation in the "We" modality? Luther wanted to replace the "devilish" Pope's Church at least in the "German nation" by his new-believing church. The result was the division and separation of his community from the Church.

Luther wanted to abolish the Catholic Church "as a visible structure" and replace it with an invisible church of the faithful assembled. Luther's contemporary, the humanist Gerhard Lorich from Hadamar, criticizes the reformer as a demolitionist of the Church. The complaint that "Lutherans and Catholics" had equally "wounded the visible unity of the Church" is wrong on both sides: Luther alone and his followers destroyed the visible church in their sphere of influence by separating themselves with their new ecclesial community. On the other hand, the Pope's self-condemnation is absurd that Catholics have "wounded the visible unity of the Church".

According to the doctrine of the Council, the Church founded by Jesus Christ is realized in the Catholic Church with Its sacramental hierarchical character. Luther and his followers did not want a Church in the classical sense but a non-sacramental, new-believing community. But there can be no second apart from the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. That is why the 145 members of the Lutheran World Federation are called and are merely "ecclesial communities".

The Joint Statement speaks of "members of our communities ...". Grammatically, the Catholic Church is also meant.  As a signatory, the Pope thus demoted the Church into one of the many ecclesiastical communities and thereby denied this. If, however, only the Protestant communities which desire a common eucharistic meal are meant, the sentence is a twofold presumption. In the case of their rejection of the Sacrifice of the Mass, the Consecration, and the Transubstantiation, the Lutherans want to receive Communion, and see it as an "expression of full unity."

It is a doctrine particular to the Lutherans that all the baptized members of the Protestant communities belong to the Body of Christ. According to apostolic-Catholic doctrine, the baptized are part of the people of God. But they do not constitute the Church in its visible and invisible-spiritual form of the mystical body of Christ. They are outside the Church, into which they should be incorporated for their salvation - according to the Council Decree Unitatis redintegratio .

The Pope and his advisers have the sacred duty of studying the doctrine of the Catholic Church, to take it to heart, and to explain it. This would prevent them from signing questionable new doctrines of the Protestants.

Text: Hubert Hecker
Photo: MiL
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

Traitor Archbishop Campaigns for Open Borders

Edit: when he's not offending Christ by praising the heretic Martin Luther, this man is betraying his country, canvassing more for the good of his own political power and support for his charity boondoggles, than he is for the spiritual good of his flock.. He has the same ideological alignment as the Pope, Cardinal Schönborn, Cardinal Marx...

Faith leaders from around Minnesota, including Archbishop Bernard Hebda, voiced concerns Jan. 30 about President Donald Trump’s recent ban on immigration from seven different countries.

[Catholic Spirit] Trump [That's God Emperor to you.] signed an executive order called “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry in to the United States” Jan. 27. It included a ban on immigrants from Yemen, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Iran and Sudan due to perceived security threats by the U.S. government.

Archbishop Hebda joined 11 other Christian, Jewish and Muslim faith leaders at the Jan. 30 press conference to call for lifting the ban. Speaking at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church in Minneapolis, the leaders said that God calls all nations to welcome refugees and immigrants.

https://youtu.be/dqnZEw7jLU0

They don't read St. Thomas Aquinas any more.

AMDG

Pope Francis as the New Luther -- The Humor of the German Section of Radio Vatican

(Rome) This photoshop has been in circulation for some time, but we have refrained from publishing it because it could have been dismissed as cheap and disrespectful propaganda. Meanwhile, however, it has been released, entirely above suspicion, namely, on Vatican Radio where it is apparently considered funny and good.

Vatican Radio is one of the official media organs of the Pope. Listeners and readers in Italy were amazed just a month ago just what was happening on the German site of Vatican Radio, but is only now becoming widely available.

On November 6, at 17:49 on the Facebook page of the German section of Vatican Radio a photoshop of Pope Francis in the guise of Martin Luther was published. The text:

"Also a nice variant. We wish you a restful Sunday."

Who is the Pope laughing at? About the "Reformation" or the Catholic Church?

A bad joke? A malicious photoshop?

A joke? A bad joke? A malicious photoshop to discredit Pope Francis? Not at all.

Pope Luther or Protestant Bergoglio? What does Vatican Radio mean?

The weekly,Die Zeit had published the photoshop with the caption published on 4 November: "That Pope Francis considers Luther positively is well known. But is it right?" It was part of the coverage of the Reformation memorandum on 31 October in Lund, Sweden, where Pope Francis had participated.

We of Katholisches.info had seen the photoshop on other sites, but did not post it out of respect for the Pope, because it seemed to us as if it it would be perceived as a critique of Francis and could have been dismissed as cheap polemics. That's what we thought. The editors of the German section of Vatican Radio thinks as quite differently and thinks only too well of it. It is likely that the idea that Francis is the Luther of the 21st century was even considered humorous.

At any rate one knows how some of his German party see the reigning pope.

"Striking"

Some commentators on the Facebook site were enthusiastic: "A brilliant photoshop. Significant and courageous for further Lutheran-Catholic dialogue."

Others expressed their resentment, including those who considered the picture to be "striking," but for the precarious state in which the Church was in the German-speaking world. The German section of Vatican Radio seems to have so arrived in the pleasure society. The concept was already old in the 90s, but it is said that there is a certain "retardation" in Rome.

The original: Martin Luther, the most successful heretic of the German Middle Ages

In the German editorial office of Radio Vatikan, they are also pleased to see that in Austria the former party chairman of the Greens and former KPÖ voters, the atheist who had become a freemason in 1975, abortion, homosexual and immigration advocate, Alexander Van der Bellen, Was elected! Was that too polemical? Oh no. Given the "humor" of the German section of Vatican Radio certainly not.

Image: Vatican Radio / Facebook (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
  Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

"Pope Francis is a Reformer Like Martin Luther" -- Margo Käßmann in "Osservatore Romano"

Edit: Käßmann is the first female Lutheran Bishop who was arrested for drunk driving in 2010, yet never the less, appears frequently to promote gender ideology, contraception and heresy at events staged in the fabulously wealthy German Catholic Tax-Church.   

(Rome) German Catholic media started ​​it, the Osservatore Romano now follows, and is "celebrating" the commemoration of the Protestant Reformation with pleasantries. On May 7, the daily newspaper of the Pope published the article "A Year to Celebrate the Reformation". From October 31 2016 to the October 31, 2017 "the German Evangelical Church has" a calendar full of events.

"The 500-year celebration of the Protestant Reformation will last exactly one year, which is traditionally associated with the publication of the Disputatio per declaratione virtutis Indulgentiarum which was in conjunction with the 95 theses, which Martin Luther nailed at the door of the episcopal church of Wittenberg in Saxony-Anhalt on 31 October 1517," said Osservatore Romano .

The kickoff  on October 31, 2016 will be a "great ceremony in the Marienkirche of Berlin". In May 2017 the "World Exhibition" in Wittenberg will take place, where "the products derived from the Reformation in the various countries and churches,  but also the fruits of culture and civil society," will be showcased.

The Kirchentag will be held from May 24-28.  A Kirchentag "in motion", which will be held in eight German cities, and then all will merge in Wittenberg for its completion.

"The German Evangelical Church has been preparing for this anniversary beginning in 2008 with a way of contemplating and to set up a network between 69 cities of the Reformation in Germany and in Europe, important places for the history and the presence of Protestantism. The conclusion of the festivities will take place at the national and international level on 31 October 2017 with a number of public events. The calendar of the ecumenical events is rich," said the Vatican daily.

Ecumenism is "in a very good state, thanks to Pope Francis"

"We can 2017 make a critical revision daring to see the reformation on an international and ecumenical horizon as a complex factor," said the "theologian and Lutheran Bishop Margot Käßmann, Ambassador of  Luther Year" recently held at a Catholic-Lutheran Reformation Conference at Pontifical Athenaeum Sant'Anselmo in Rome.

Käßmann said this about Ecumenism in an interview with Vatican Insider:

"We are in a very good stage because ecumenism on the one hand is a discussion about what the Church, the Eucharist, baptism, officials, means, but then also acting as Christians in the world, and since we are currently [the Catholic Church] very close, thanks to Pope Francis, a reformer in his Church, as Martin Luther a reformer was in his."

For Käßmann, said Osservatore Romano, it was "a good opportunity" to ask, "what we can find in his other church, which we did not." As a specific example she cited: "What I really admire about the Roman Catholic Church is that it preserves the global unity of the Church, despite the many internal differences."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Photo: Osservatore Romano (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

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Bishop Voderholzer: "We have in Benedict XVI. a Pope, Whom Even Martin Luther Could Not Better Have Imagined."

Edit: one commenter laconically writes, "We have a Pope named Benedict XVI..."

Voderholzer said afterwards in sermon in St Peter: "We have in Benedict XVI. a Pope, whom even Martin Luther could not have better imagined."

Regensburg (kath.net/KNA/red) A delegation of the diocese Regensburg has met Emeritus Benedict XVI. in Rome. The occasion was a pilgrimage to Rome for the Year of Mercy, as the diocese announced in Regensburg on Monday. Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer handed Benedict XVI. a pilgrim scarf (photo available). The former Pope had folded this immediately and gave the pilgrims from home his warmest regards. Each participant got a photo with dedication.

In a sermon in St Peter, Voderholzer honored Benedict XVI before the pilgrims as well: "We have in Benedict XVI. a Pope, whom even Martin Luther could not have better imagined. A pope who sees it as one of his first tasks, with all the powers of reason and historical knowledge, to give a testimony about Jesus Christ. He has as much recognition around the world found as the theologian Pope, whose legacy we treasure in a qualified way, in Regensburg, that we may preserve and carry it into the future."

Edit: looks like a reference to the Regensburg Speech, which Voderholzer probably didn't appreciate.

Link kath.net...
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Praise for Martin Luther at St. Peter's Basilica: "Martin Luther HadBrought the Truth to Light Again"

Pope Bergoglio Looks on as Cantalamessa insults God

(Rome) The Good Friday sermon in St. Peter's Basilica, was also given in the presence of Pope Francis in 2016 by the Pontifical House Preacher,  Father Raniero Cantalamessa OFM Cap. The famous Capuchin declared some things that are very surprising to Catholic Christians. That  Martin Luther's "merit " is "to have brought to light" again the "truth" about the "righteousness of God".

Luther's "merit" and the Church policy ecumenical agenda in Rome

The Catholic Church had "for centuries" "lost" a truth before Luther?

Cantalamessa said:

But all of this means nothing if one does not first understand what the term "righteousness of God" actually means. When you hear talk of the righteousness of God and misunderstand this, then there is a risk to be put off by it, rather than feel encouraged. Augustine had already pointed out: "The righteousness of God," he wrote, "is that we are justified by grace, just like the salvation of the Lord '(salus Domini) (Psalm 3.9) that is, God saves us "1) In other words,  the righteousness of God is the act by which those people who believe in his son, are justified and made pleading to him. It is not a matter of  making "justification" but "to making the righteous."

To Luther comes the merit of having brought this truth to light again after the Christian message had lost the sense of it for centuries. That is essentially what Christianity owes the Reformation whose fifth centenary will soon take place. About this discovery, the Reformer later wrote: "I felt even reborn entirely and as I had entered through open gates Of paradise itself." 2

2013  Cantalamessa attempts to set aside  the "partition" between "various Christian churches" and eliminate the "relic of rituals"

Already in his first Good Friday sermon on 29 March 2013 Cantalamessa had made controversial remarks on ecumenism and the unity of the Christian Communities. It was then  the Pontifical House preacher said:

"[Zenit] We must do everything possible so that the Church may never look like that complicated and cluttered castle described by Kafka, and the message may come out of it as free and joyous as when the messenger began his run. We know what the impediments are that can restrain the messenger: dividing walls, starting with those that separate the various Christian churches from one another, the excess of bureaucracy, the residue of past ceremonials, laws and disputes, now only debris."

The full text of the Good Friday sermon in 2016 was published by Zenit. The original sermon was posted on the video channel of Vatican Radio. Preaching Cantalamessas in length of 25 minutes starting at minute 51:30 and ends at 1:17:30.

<iframe width="500" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dPmCo9SeY9w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Text: Nardi
Bild: Vatican.va/OR (Screenshot)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Pope Francis to Visit Fatima in May of 2017

(Rome) Portugal President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was received by Pope Francis on his first foreign trip, which took him to Spain and Italy.   Rebelo de Sousa won the direct elections for the Portuguese Head of State last January 24.  He was inaugurated on March 9.

Prime Minister Rebelo is a founding member of  the Social Democratic Party of Portugal (PSD), created in 1974, which is - is a Christian Democratic party - despite the name.

Invitation to Portugal's new president

The encounter with the Catholic Church leader lasted half an hour. Following this, President Rebelo told the press that he had invited Pope Francis for the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of Fatima in Portugal.

The President said:

"I have am issuing an official invitation to visit Portugal in May to mark the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of Fatima. It is an invitation to visit Portugal. It is not for me to decide what position the Holy Father favors, who receives many referrals."

At the same time Rebelo confirmed that  Cardinal Secretary Parolin will be present on the 100th anniversary of the last apparition on the 12th/13th of October 1917. Pope Francis will not travel with him in October to Fatima

Fatima visit May 13, 2017?

On May 13th, in the month named by President Rebelo, the first apparition took place in 1917.
An official confirmation by the Vatican is not yet forthcoming, but it is certain that Pope Francis will visit next year Portugal and Fatima.  In April and September 2015, Francis had expressed a wish to visit the Portuguese Marian shrine.

Francis has already announced his participation on October 31st, 2016, his preference for the Catholic-Lutheran commemoration of  500 years of Protestant "Reformation" in Stockholm. It's a decision that has caused some grumbling in certain Catholic circles.

In this context, it is noted from the Catholic side that Protestants may indeed celebrate in 2017, although the 500 years of "Reformation" for Catholics is another commemoration, namely the 100 years Fatima is of real significance.

100 years Fatima - 500 Years of "Reformation"

The Pope's visit to Portugal and Fatima in May 2017 would be intended, say observers, as "compensation" for the participation of Francis at Luther commemoration that gives the impression of a Catholic recognition of Luther.  Martin Luther is synonymous with the most serious cleavage of Latin Christendom.  "It is no cause to celebrate," said the Catholic News page Secretum meum mihi.
On the question, what is important for Catholics in 2017, 500 years of Reformation  or 100 years of Fatima,  the Catholic news website: "We are pleased with the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of all Christians, the true ecumenist, for she is truly Catholic."

Text: Giiuseppe Nardi
Image: SMM (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

Vatican Downplays Expectation of a Papal Visit on Reformation 2017

Cardinal: Francis has been no response to the invitation EKD

Rome (kath.net / idea ) The expectation that Pope Francis is to come to the 500-year anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 in Germany has been downplayed by the President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch. The Pope had given no reply to the invitation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany Council Chairman, President i.R. Nikolaus Schneider (Berlin), said the Swiss Cardinal in an interview with Vatican Radio. In a private audience on 8 April Schneider had invited the head of the Roman Catholic Church, to participate in Wittenberg in the events commemorating the theses of the reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546) 31 October 1517. The Vatican sees, among other things, no reason to “celebrate" the Reformation, its following schism and the religious wars of the 16th and 17th Centuries, but wishes only “recollect” it.

Schneider: It's about a Feast for Christ

The ELCG Council stressed that it was not the anniversary of the Reformation to go about celebrating "the birth of the Protestant church." Luther did not want to found a new church, but to reform the Catholic. It would also not hide the dark side of the Reformation and the Reformer. Rather, the anniversary should be designed as a Christian festival that every Christian can celebrate.

Koch: the Vatican is not a contact person for the ELCG

Koch also pointed out to Vatican Radio different responsibilities. The Vatican is not the actual contact person for the ELCG, but the German Bishops' Conference. Lutheranism, by contrast, has a “worldwide presence," said Koch. The Vatican engages in theological conversations especially with the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). They had agreed together in the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in1999. Koch himself took part last November while participating in the General Synod of the United Lutheran Church of Germany (VELKD) Timmendorfer Strand in Luebeck, but not at the subsequent ELCG Synod. The Lutheran Evangelical Church doesn’t understand itself as an autonomous church, but as a community of 20, United and Reformed churches.

Paper completed on Reformation Commemoration

As Koch said in the current interview further in view of discussions between the Catholic and the Lutheran church, the competent International Commission has prepared a document to commemorate 2017th year of the Reformation. It is expressed in the English title "From Conflict to Communion" (From Conflict to Community). The paper is finished, but is to be released only after the German translation is complete. Worldwide, the Roman Catholic Church has about 1.2 billion members. The number of Lutherans is [merely] about 74 million, which includes nearly 71 million to the LWF member churches.

Pope Francis receives EKD Church President Nikolaus Schneider - Pope meets with Francis first Protestant leader (Rome Reports)

Roberto de Mattei: Will Pope Francis Address the Causes of the Crisis? The Example of Hadrian VI.

What follows is the first opinion of the well-known tradition associated historian, Roberto de Mattei on the election of Pope Francis  (Francis):

The church has a new pope: Jorge Mario Bergoglio. The first non-European pope, the first Latin American pope, the first named Francis. The mass media will evaluate his past as a Cardinal, as archbishop of Buenos Aires and a simple priest to guess what the future of the church will be under his pontificate. Which revolution will he carry the flag for? Hans Küng describes him as the "best choice" (La Repubblica, 14.3.) But not until after the appointment of its staff and to its first keynote speeches will we be able to estimate the orientation of the pontificate of Pope Francis. For each pope, which is 1458 Cardinal Enea Piccolomini Silvia said at the moment of his election as pope with the name Pius II: “Forget Enea, listen to Pius.”

The History never repeats itself exactly the same in the past, but it helps to understand the present. In the 16th Century went through the Catholic Church a crisis that had never happened before. Humanism, with its immoral hedonism had infected the Roman Curia and the popes themselves. The corruption of Martin Luther's Protestant pseudo-reform had arisen, which Pope Leo X. who was from the family of the Medici, dismissed it as a "quarrel among monks." The heresy then immediately spread out, as after the death of Leo X. 1522, a German pope, Adrian of Utrecht, was unexpectedly chosen. He gave himself the name of Hadrian VI. The shortness of his pontificate, prevented him from bringing his projects to a conclusion. This is particularly true that, as well-known papal historian Ludwig von Pastor writes of the gigantic conflict against the many abuses which disfigured the Roman Curia, included almost the entire church. Even if his papacy had lasted longer, the evil was too deeply rooted in the Church, Pastor noted, than it would be necessary for a single pontificate to effect such a great change. All the evil that has been done for generations, could be overcome only by a long continuous work.

Hadrian VI. realized the extent of the problem and the responsibility the men of the Church who bore it. It is clear from the Instructio that on the apostolic nuncio Francesco Chieregati read on behalf of the Pope third January 1523 at the Diet of Nuremberg. Ludwig von Pastor emphasizes the extreme importance of this document, to learn not only about the ideas of the Pope for the renewal of the Church, but because it is as a text, never been in Church history never before.

After it initially rejects the Lutheran heresy, he treats the last and more important part of the instruction, the failure of the highest ecclesiastical authority against the revolutionaries.

We frankly confess that God lets it happen this persecution of His Church, because of the sins of the people and especially the priests and prelates. It is certain that the hand of God has not withdrawn, not because He can not save us, but because our sin separates us from him and therefore He does not hear us. The Scripture clearly teaches that the sins of the people have their origin in the sins of the clergy and therefore, as St. John Chrysostom explains, our Saviour, when He tried to clean the sick city of Jerusalem, he first went to the temple to punish the sins of the first priest, like a good doctor who cures the disease at its source. We have never sought the papal dignity, and would much rather have closed our eyes in the retreat of private life: We have waived the tiara, and only the fear of God, the legality of the election and the danger of a schism have led us to the office of the highest pastors to assume that we do not want to exercise in ambition, nor to enrich our families, but only to return the Holy Church, the bride of God to Her original beauty, to help the oppressed, to promote wise and able men to absolutely everything to do, what befits a good shepherd and true successor of Peter. However, no one should be surprised if we do not remove at a stroke all the abuses, because the disease is advanced and deeply rooted. It will therefore be taking one step after another, and confront the dangerous evils by the right drug, not to hasty reform to confuse everything even more. For, as Aristotle says, any sudden change is dangerous to common life.

The words of Adrian VI. help us to understand how the present crisis of the Church originated in doctrinal and moral defects of the men of the Church in the second half century since the Second Vatican Council. The Church is infallible. But Her members, the high ecclesiastical authorities, can make mistakes and must be willing to admit their guilt publicly. We know that. Adrian VI had the courage to tackle this critical examination of the past. How will the new pope counter the process of doctrinal and moral self-destruction of the Church and what position will he play against a modern world that is immersed in deep anti-Christian feeling? Only in the future will we be able to answer these questions, but it is certain that the cause of the darkness of our present time are in our recent past.

The story also tells us that Hadrian VI. was followed with the name of Clement VII (1523-1534) Giulio de Medici. Under his pontificate, the terrible sack of Rome took place on 6 May 1527 by the Lutheran mercenaries of the Emperor Charles V. The destruction and sacrileges that were committed then, and those of the year, exceeded the sack 410, can be barely described. There was particular brutality taken against religious and clergy: nuns raped, priests and monks killed or sold as slaves, destroyed churches, palaces and buildings, relics scattered and taken away. After the carnage famine and pestilence followed in quick succession. The citizens were decimated.

The Catholic people interpreted the event as a just punishment for their sins. Only after the terrible looting did life begin to fundamentally change. The climate of moral and religious relativism dissolved and in the general distress, a serious, sober and contrite air made throughout the holy city. This new atmosphere made the great religious revival of the Catholic Counter-Reformation of the 16th Century possible.

Link to Katholisches…

Image from here…

Contact: vekron99@hotmail.com

ADMG

A Corrupter of Holy Scripture

Caricature of Luther from the times
of the Protestant Revolt

A Little Late for Reformation Day

(kreuz.net)  The stalwart Catholic apologist, Fr. Johann Nikolaus Weislinger (+1755), wrote in his book: "My way or the highway" in 1719:

"What concerns the German Bible, so every Lutheran should now know is that in Germany, German Bibles were had and read before Luther sprang and pitifully seduced and deceived our beloved fatherland with his villainous, prankish and interlaced Bible."

Before Luther there were 14 Complete Editions of the Bible

The historical critic confirmed this harsh criticism.

In 1522 Luther's German translation of the New Testament appeared in Wittenberg.

Before this point in time there were 14 complete High German editions of the Bible available.

Martin Luther the Poser

Of these Luther himself used three, as Protestant G.W. Hopf confirms:

-Augsburg 1477
-Nurnberg 1483
-Augsburg 1518

(Hopf, value of Lutheran Germanification of the Bible, 1847)

At the same time Luther boasted that he "had pulled the Bible from under the bench".

The Swiss Reformer Huldrych Zwingli (+1531) thought that such bragging should have been "flogged out".

Poorly translated

Luthers work showed itself soon to be unusually prone to error.

Already the Elsatian schismatic Martin Butzer (+1551) found a large number of mistakes in Luther's translation.

Other Protestants, like Christian Karl von Bunsen (+1860)   explained that the meaning of the original did not match in a hundred places.

No other was as mistaken about the original text.  It was regarded as the most imprecise of all translations.  Over 3,000 places needed correction.

Luther will be canonized

In 1885 a book appeared in Berlin with the following title:  "God's food and the Lutheran Bible translation -- two fundamentally diverse things."

Protestant yes men set themselves against any alteration out of exaggerated honor for Luther.

So wrote the Protestant preacher Mayer:  "M. Franke, who castigated many errors in Luther's Bible, has not condemned Lutherdom, but the Holy Ghost himself."  (Johann Nikolaus Weislinger, page 331)

Luther Against All

The erroneous teaching of the justification of men through faith in Christ alone led Luther to counterfeits of Holy Scripture and the intentional falsification of the written word of God.

His followers were led to only understand Holy Scripture as he misunderstood it.

"Guard yourself", warned Luther, "against all the teaching which need aught but these words (Law, Sin, Grace, Faith, Justice in the Letters of Paul), be they who they will,  even as if they were the same as Origin, Ambrose, Hironymus, Augustine and still higher."

The Classical Example

Through omissions, distortions, truncations, Luther gave Holy Scripture a Lutheran face, so that the Bible,  at least from the great mass of superficial readers, vouch for him.

In 2 Peter 1: 10 he simply removed for example in the sentence  "Wherefore, brethren, labour the more, that by good works you may make sure your calling and election" the words "good works".

The classical example of Lutheran written falsification is Romans 3:28.

There, St. Paul wrote: For we account a man to be justified by faith, without the works of the law."

Luther arbitrarily shoved the word "alone" out so that it meant: The man will be justified through faith alone without the works of the law."

Why? So that the people believed that Luther taught the same as St. Paul.

Questions Were Answered with Outbreaks of Fury

As he was reprimanded for such a manipulation of Holy Scripture, Luther answered:

"If you Papists [a priest of Nurnberg who broke from Luther] want to make the word "sola" --alone -- useless, quickly tell him therefore:  Doctor Martin Luther wants it that way and say: Papist and asses are one thing;  sic volo sic jubeo, sit pro ratione voluntas." [I want, then I command. Instead of reasoning my will applies!]

What would not be melded into his system, was thrown out, like the letters of James, the Hebrews and the Apocalypse of John.

Lutheran Exegesis

The book of Tobias as denoted as a comedy by Luther.

The wasting of Job was explained with:  "The Devil foisted some syphilis on him".

The book of Ecclesiastes "has neither books nor spurs and goes to stockings". [A play on the expression that you can't go to heaven with your boots and spurs.]

In Sirach 3, 5 a church teacher is introduced as a jokester.

"You Damn Jews"

Especially poor is Luther's talk about Moses as well as Jews in general and the Old Testament:

"Everyone who goes with Moses, must go with the devil, to the gallows with Moses.  The Ten Commandments don't apply to us Christians and the heathens, but the Jews alone."

(Volume 5.  Wittenberger Edition germ. fol. 212)

Or: "Pfui you there, pfui you there and where you are, you damn Jews!  Are you worth nothing that you see the Bible from outside.  Let alone that you read what's inside.

You should only read the bible,  which is under the pig's tail, and the letters fall out the same way, eat and drink. That would be a bible for such prophets."

(Tom. S. Jen. germ. fol. 83 adit. 1558)

The Prophet of Wittenberg handled Holy Scripture and its author so disgracefully.

From the book "Luther, as he lived, loved and died, portrayed according to a irrefutable report.  Polemic writing against the "los von Rom-Pastoren".  Eight, unchanged editions. Graz und Wien 1925.   Publishing House 'Styria'.  Available, here...

Halloween is Condemned by the Pope

Edit: Of course this is one of the scariest times of the year. There are recollections of one's mortality and the decay of things as the days grow colder, more bitter and remote.

It is also the time when Martin Luther launched the Protestant Revolt. Halloween is made scarier still by the appearance of the reformer. But the connection is more than merely temporal, for there are links between the Protestant Revolt and occultism which brings the modern age more clearly into focus.

[Daily Mail] Halloween is largely a secular celebration which has its origins in an ancient festival marking the start of the 'darker half of the year'.

But in an article entitled The Dangerous Messages of Halloween, the Vatican's official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano quoted liturgical expert Joan Maria Canals as saying: 'Halloween has an undercurrent of occultism and is absolutely anti-Christian.'

Father Canals urged parents 'to be aware of this and try to direct the meaning of the feast towards wholesomeness and beauty rather than terror, fear and death'.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1224079/Halloween-dangerous-says-Pope-slams-anti-Christian-festival.html#ixzz1cLS1PpXT

Link to photo site...