Pope to rehabilitate Martin Luther................

[nhboy]

That Martin Luther? He wasn’t so bad, says Pope

"Pope Benedict XVI is to rehabilitate Martin Luther, arguing that he did not intend to split Christianity but only to purge the Church of corrupt practices.

Pope Benedict will issue his findings on Luther (1483-1546) in September after discussing him at his annual seminar of 40 fellow theologians — known as the Ratzinger Schülerkreis — at Castelgandolfo, the papal summer residence. According to Vatican insiders the Pope will argue that Luther, who was excommunicated and condemned for heresy, was not a heretic.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, the head of the pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said the move would help to promote ecumenical dialogue between Catholics and Protestants. It is also designed to counteract the impact of July's papal statement describing the Protestant and Orthodox faiths as defective and “not proper Churches”.

The move to re-evaluate Luther is part of a drive to soften Pope Benedict's image as an arch conservative hardliner as he approaches the third anniversary of his election next month. This week it emerged that the Vatican is planning to erect a statue of Galileo, who also faced a heresy trial, to mark the 400th anniversary next year of his discovery of the telescope."

That Martin Luther? He wasn’t so bad, says Pope -Times Online

 

[Starman3000m]

"Pope Benedict XVI is to rehabilitate Martin Luther, arguing that he did not intend to split Christianity but only to purge the Church of corrupt practices.

Yikes! The pope admits that the Catholic Church had "corrupt practices" in the time of Martin Luther ???
Are they all completely purged at this point in history?

For anyone interested in Martin Luther's concerns against the Roman Catholic Church, here is a link to what he had posted on the church door:

95 Theses - Luther

 

[libby]

One of the benefits of being a Bible Christian is that you can vascillate between being an island and being part of the "invisible church", eh, Starman? For all of the abuses by other Bible Christians you can just detach and claim erroneous interpretation, a mistake you could never make! For all of the good Bible Christians do, you can attach firmly on their coattails and congratulate yourself for being one of the chosen.

Forgive me for being frustrated and therefore rude, but get off of your high horse. Catholic laity and Catholic leadership is human and there are abusers, and nobody has ever claimed otherwise. Perhaps you could spend a moment of time considering all of the good the Catholic Church has done over the years, from schools to hospitals to individual efforts like those of Mother Theresa. Instead, it seems you'd rather gloat and revel in the shame and sin of God's other children.
Shall I go search for a list of abuses by Bible Christians?

 

[Starman3000m]

One of the benefits of being a Bible Christian is that you can vascillate between being an island and being part of the "invisible church", eh, Starman? For all of the abuses by other Bible Christians you can just detach and claim erroneous interpretation, a mistake you could never make! For all of the good Bible Christians do, you can attach firmly on their coattails and congratulate yourself for being one of the chosen.

Forgive me for being frustrated and therefore rude, but get off of your high horse. Catholic laity and Catholic leadership is human and there are abusers, and nobody has ever claimed otherwise. Perhaps you could spend a moment of time considering all of the good the Catholic Church has done over the years, from schools to hospitals to individual efforts like those of Mother Theresa. Instead, it seems you'd rather gloat and revel in the shame and sin of God's other children.
Shall I go search for a list of abuses by Bible Christians?

libby, I understand your frustrations and don't consider your response as rude at all. I have never once claimed that church leadership of any religion is beyond reproach. It is plain that church leaders are the ones who are to be setting examples of living for God and, yes, there are many within the Evangelical/Protestant/Pentecostal/Lutheran/Methodist, etc. - you name it they will have leadership problems. I have agreed that there are Christian leaders who have greatly abused the power of the pulpit and misused church funds and privileges.

Those are the ones that Yeshua (Not Starman) rebuked and called them hypocrites for "praising" God with their lips, religious rituals and traditions but yet their heart was far from God.

I do not revel in the pitfalls of anyone for all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. What needs to be stated is that anyone in church leadership will be more accountable for leading people into truth and if a leader is found to be irresponsible in that regard he/she is to be removed from holding a position of "shepherd" over the flock. That is a Biblical principle, libby, not mine and I hope you would be able to understand why that has to be so.

Many Protestant/Evangelical church leaders have been asked by the board and membership to resign from their position of authority when it is learned that they do not abide by high accountable standards that are exemplary of a church leader. In recent times, many Catholic priests who have been involved in abuses are being dismissed from their duties rather than being reassigned to a new parish as had been done before. That's the way it should be, libby, do you not agree?

 

[tommyjones]

One of the benefits of being a Bible Christian is that you can vascillate between being an island and being part of the "invisible church", eh, Starman? For all of the abuses by other Bible Christians you can just detach and claim erroneous interpretation, a mistake you could never make! For all of the good Bible Christians do, you can attach firmly on their coattails and congratulate yourself for being one of the chosen.

Forgive me for being frustrated and therefore rude, but get off of your high horse. Catholic laity and Catholic leadership is human and there are abusers, and nobody has ever claimed otherwise. Perhaps you could spend a moment of time considering all of the good the Catholic Church has done over the years, from schools to hospitals to individual efforts like those of Mother Theresa. Instead, it seems you'd rather gloat and revel in the shame and sin of God's other children.
Shall I go search for a list of abuses by Bible Christians?

i'll sum up his post......


"yep, it sure does"

 

[libby]

libby, I understand your frustrations and don't consider your response as rude at all. I have never once claimed that church leadership of any religion is beyond reproach. It is plain that church leaders are the ones who are to be setting examples of living for God and, yes, there are many within the Evangelical/Protestant/Pentecostal/Lutheran/Methodist, etc. - you name it they will have leadership problems. I have agreed that there are Christian leaders who have greatly abused the power of the pulpit and misused church funds and privileges.

Those are the ones that Yeshua (Not Starman) rebuked and called them hypocrites for "praising" God with their lips, religious rituals and traditions but yet their heart was far from God.

I do not revel in the pitfalls of anyone for all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. What needs to be stated is that anyone in church leadership will be more accountable for leading people into truth and if a leader is found to be irresponsible in that regard he/she is to be removed from holding a position of "shepherd" over the flock. That is a Biblical principle, libby, not mine and I hope you would be able to understand why that has to be so.

Many Protestant/Evangelical church leaders have been asked by the board and membership to resign from their position of authority when it is learned that they do not abide by high accountable standards that are exemplary of a church leader. In recent times, many Catholic priests who have been involved in abuses are being dismissed from their duties rather than being reassigned to a new parish as had been done before. That's the way it should be, libby, do you not agree?

Of course those things are true. However, your focus on the errors of Catholic leaders in this forum is off balance. If you can point me to threads in which you've pointed out errors of Bible Christians, then I will be happy to apologize.
You are very quick to assume that Catholics are insincere, ignorant of Truth, and power hungry. This is evidenced in your first post on this thread, dripping with sarcasm, and in the Humanity of Jesus thread where we just went over conversions in/out of denominations. The CC that drove your parents out of town was filled with power hungry leaders and blind followers (one would have to assume based on your story) yet when you read the story of Rob Evans (who I think is pretty famous in the evangelical community) your first response is that there was probably more to the story! Did he come to church drunk, etc.
I've got no problem with holding the truth of history up to the light, and you are correct that those leaders will held accountable for their misleadings. You have got to do a bit more self-examination, though, because your broad brush bears false witness to the millions of good, holy, God-loving people throughout history.
I will re-iterate my willingness to apologize to you if I'm mistaken, and to God for bearing false witness about you on this forum.

 

[Starman3000m]

No apology necessary, libby.

Actually, I post on various other Internet forums and personally apologize for offending you with my comments which were not meant to be sarcastic.

As mentioned no church leadership is above reproach and church doctrine is also what needs to be challenged and scrutinized when it comes to speaking Truth. It is up to any and all church members to know if what they are being told is the Truth. This statement has been posted on the Internet info that I posted back in 2002 and its found at Research

The New Testament teaches believers that they are to beware of false teachers and to "test the spirits" to see if they are of God. Such is the reason why there are many people being led away from God's Truth by church leaders who become misguided or are there for self-gain.

Again, I understand the reasons that you feel as you do. However, my challenge of the CC will always be met with rebuttal by its members but this is also the same as when I challenge other religions and compare their doctrines to the New Testament teachings. It just so happens when you read and are offended by my comments it is relating to the CC in some way or another. However, the same is true when I question and comment on the teachings of Islam, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc. and then members of those groups become offended at what I write.