Ratzinger to God: Sit Back Down!
March 6, 2008In a reversal of the Papal Bull Exsurge Domine, Pope Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) is now telling God he need not rise up at all, but instead he should take his seat: Luther’s not a heretic after all!
Pope Ratzinger- I hate to break it to you- but you’re a bit late. Luther’s already dead. Telling God to take a seat (which is what Ratzinger’s rehab of Luther is, for all intents and purposes) is a bit silly. Anyway, you don’t have to tell God to ignore your predecessor. He did.
Two things I love about that article:
1) “He insisted that the Bible, not the Vatican, was the sole source of religious authority - and to underline his point he translated it from Latin.”
The “Latin original” attacks again!!!
2) “The news of the re-evaluation of Luther comes hot on the heels of the revelation that the Vatican plans a statue of Galileo, the astronomer it once tried for heresy, for the fourth centenary next year of his invention of the telescope. Both are part of an attempt to soften Pope Benedict’s image as a hardline conservative.”
He’ll say that Luther and Galileo were RIGHT? Oh, no! Don’t fall off the deep end there, Papa Ratzi!
This looks like a good strategy for providing material that will allow for more effective reaching out to Protestants to join the Roman Catholic Church. But as long as the Council of Trent stands, it does strike me as a somewhat empty gesture. And I won’t hold my breath waiting for any reversal of Trent’s anathematizing of all who believe as Luther did.
Perhaps the article should be taken with a grain of salt.
See:
http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=57062