If Luther’s Revolution were “a work of the Holy Spirit”, surely he must be canonised?
Medias-Presse.Info reports the scandal of an Italian bishop praising Luther’s Reformation as “a work of the Holy Spirit”. Unfortunately, there is no official English translation available, so our French blogger, Lionel, offers the following summary, with commentary:
Bishop Nunzio Galantino is not just any Italian bishop: he is the General Secretary of the Italian Episcopal Conference, a position of high responsibility.
His latest statement has a flavour of public apostasy and denial of Catholic doctrine: for this prince of the Catholic Church, the reform of Luther is simply “a work of the Holy Spirit”!
These scandalous words, because one must never stop being scandalized by such heterodox remarks, resonated within the Pontifical Lateran University during a conference on the theme “Passion for God, spirituality and theology of the Reformation in 500 years of his birth “, organized by this Vatican University.
Bishop Galantino began by reading an excerpt from Luther, historically considered offensive to the papacy: “I rose against the pope, indulgences and papists, but without tumult and without violence. I put forward the Word of God, I preached, I wrote; I did not do anything else. And while I slept, … that Word I preached overthrew popery, ” then affirming: “The Reformation launched by Martin Luther 500 years ago was an event of the Holy Spirit. ” Rien que ça!
He then developed his praise of the German heresiarch in front of his audience:
“The Reformation responds to the truth expressed in the formula” ecclesia semper reformanda “. Luther himself wrote, “And while I slept, God reformed the Church” – he did not consider himself the architect of reform.”
“Today, too,” said the Italian bishop, “the Church needs reform. And only God can realize it. “
You do not have to be a great cleric to understand that what Bishop Galantino professes is not very Catholic: he takes Luther’s bluster for Gospel words and denies his infallibility to the Council of Trent, which anathematized the Lutheran heresy. The world upside down ! Let us remind this high ranking of the conciliar Church that Luther did not reform the Catholic Church under the impulse of the Holy Spirit, as he suggests, but that he founded a Christian sect, fierce enemy of all that is Catholic! True!
But the peroration of the Monseigneur does not stop there. He digresses to the Second Vatican Council, and there we will not contradict his statement, some truths also come out, sometimes, from the mouths of the enemies of the Truth. According to IEC number 2, Luther’s love for the Word anticipates the sacramentality of the Word affirmed at the Second Vatican Council. This is affirmed by a conciliar [Father], by the statement made by Archbishop Lefebvre after the Council, that Vatican II is an extension of the Protestant Reformation and leads to it, as this speech by Bishop Galantino allows us to glimpse: “this reform was born of liberalism, of modernism, is entirely poisoned; it comes out of heresy and ends up in heresy,…” [Archbishop Lefebvre] declared in 1974.
Bishop Galantino concluded by recalling Pope Francis’ gesture in Lund, Sweden, to commemorate the 500 years of the Reformation: “He signed a joint declaration to overcome the reciprocal prejudices that still divide Catholics and Protestants. And this same pope acknowledged to Luther, continues Bishop Galantino, the merit of “wanting to renovate the Church and not divide it”. Je rêve! END OF LIONEL’S SUMMARY
Then, today, blogger Westminster Fly posted the following comment with link on the ‘Even Newer Mass(es)’ thread. Since his short and shocking linked report represents what is, in effect, the logical conclusion of “the spirit of Vatican II”, it is also appropriate to discuss it on this thread. Westminster Fly writes:
In a personal communication to a Professor Baumgartner in Salzburg, Cardinal Mario Luigi Ciappi, who was the personal papal theologian to Popes John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II, revealed: “In the Third Secret (of Fatima) it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top”. And then I see this … Note: you can read the entire First Things article by Marco Tosatti (a Vaticanist who writes from Rome) here
Comment:
Should we be preparing for the canonisation of Martin Luther?
Comments (45)
Bishop Galantino, Italian bishop: Luther’s reform is « a work of the Holy Spirit »
(MPI)
22nd October 2017
This was to be demonstrated, they will soon canonize Luther! In a sense, it would clarify their position…
In case we are tempted to entertain the doubt, we can now rightly consider that they are formally heretical and schismatic and all this justifies the attitude that Archbishop Marcel Lefèbvre had towards them…
They do not really practice ecumenism, they are plainly Protestant.
Yes, Archbishop Lefèbvre was right.
We do not really have a choice; we have to choose between schism or heresy or both…
It is true that God knows how to draw good from evil, that He used the Luther phenomenon to purify the Church, it is undeniable, but He certainly did not inspire him!
Let us be clear, for us, Archbishop Lefèbvre is neither a guru nor an idol, he simply and justly reacted to the collective apostasy that were the decisions taken at the end of the disastrous Second Vatican Council and that is all to his credit!
If we still have any doubts, we are now fixed on what the supporters of the Council, because of their pitiful behaviour, imply by “Holy Spirit” or “Spirit of the Council”!
Please, never forget that after Mercy comes Justice and forever!
It strikes me that the ecumenical Mass has been in existence for the past 50 years or so; we call it the Novus Ordo Mass. The Protestant theologians who helped to manufacture the Mass with Bugnini were not displeased and the Confession of Augsburg gave their resounding applause. The theology of the New Mass, expressing sufficient Protestant doctrine or suppressed Catholic doctrine was enough to placate them. What I suspect is that this new ecumenical mass concept will allow for women clerics from the Lutheran Community to mince around the sanctuary of a Catholic Church. Protestants and Catholics will be permitted to receive the “Body of the Lord” together, as an expression of Christian love, unity and mercy.
With regards to this bishop’s nonsense about Luther’s reform being the work of the Holy Spirit, thankfully, Cardinal Muller completely disagrees with him.
I just thank God I live near a FSSPX Mass Centre.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cardinal-mueller-luthers-reform-was-against-the-holy-spirit?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com&utm_campaign=6d03853b81-Catholic_10_26_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_12387f0e3e-6d03853b81-402345717
How many Catholics will refuse to attend an Ecumenical Mass? Thinking about the parishioners that I knew when I used to attend my novus ordo parish (many years ago!) I would say that the majority of them wouldn’t have a problem with doing such a thing at all. And those who did have reservations would probably go along with it, because they wouldn’t want to be seen to be ‘different’.
If Christ himself was giving a sermon at the Town Hall tonight, would you really abstain from attending, lest there be a protestant in the crowd. how very sad and empty ones life can be
Danny,
Are you being serious? Have you become so protestantised by your attendance at the watered down novus ordo Mass that you really do not see any difference between a (true) Catholic Mass and an “Ecumenical Mass” which is, of course, no Mass at all? Are you really that far gone? I mean, we’re not talking who to “friend” on Facebook here… Gerragrip… Or, put another way…
Gimme strength.
No one is talking about a meeting in a Hall we’re talking of Holy Mass . That’s the ones where Catholics go to . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W85Mair6Uc&feature=share
These are truly dark days. We seem to be assaulted from so many different directions at the moment that one can really sense a diabolical plan behind it all especially where the “glorification” of Luther is concerned. What really frightens me is that I think that most ordinary Catholics have no sense at all of what is going on. They neither know nor care about what the hierarchy are about, not too surprising since a deafening silence is what we get at diocesan level, and they seem to be quite happy with Pope Francis. No idea at all about what he is teaching etc. And why would they know? Sermons at Mass are for the most part anodyne commentaries on the Gospel of the day and no true catechesis ever.
For those of us who cannot get to the Traditional Mass we are forced to endure the NO and heaven help us if the liturgy is even more dumbed down thanks to the Popes latest initiative. I try hard to open the eyes of my family but no matter what I say and why, they all continue to receive Holy Communion in the hand from Eucharistic so called “ministers”!
I suppose we can only cling to Our Lady’s promise that her Immaculate heart will triumph in the end but we are in a very sad time. I can never remember feeling so negative about a Pope before but if I criticise him people say that he was. Chosen under the guidance of the Holy Spirit! I think the powers of darkness had more influence.
Elizabeth,
“most ordinary Catholics have no sense at all of what is going on…”
Absolutely correct. I’ve been meeting more than my usual share of diocesan, novus-ordo attending Catholics recently and, with certain [Catholic Truth reader] exceptions, it’s like speaking to aliens. No pointed heads, no large ears… (well, mostly…) but not a CLUE that there is the slightest problem in the Church.
I’ve run out of superlatives to describe the situation, so I will finish with this: it’s worrying to think that so many Catholics, including Papa Francis, now agree with our dearly beloved Protestant friends and [in my own case, certainly] relatives, that the Lutheran revolt was simply supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
How are they to be brought home to the fullness of the Faith with this flawed thinking permeating parishes?
Editor,
How are they to be brought home to the fullness of the Faith with this flawed thinking permeating parishes?
I wonder if the restoration of the Church will include excommunication of those modern Catholics-in-Name-Only who refuse to convert to Catholicism? Conversion will be necessary, because they are practicing a different religion (if you can even call it that) without being aware of it.
It will require another St. Francis de Sales, but this time the whole world will be his Geneva.
Ed most Catholics I speak to actually believe what it says in The Daily Record about our Faith. Personally I don’t buy or even read the Rag . In fact I wouldn’t believe the Date on the Front Page .
Elizabeth
If anyone tells you that Pope Francis was ‘chosen under the guidance of the Holy Spirit’ please refer them to the article ‘On Papolatry’ by Dr William Marra: http://brizek.com/fandm/papalotry.htm I’ve posted it as a link on this site a few times before, but it’s always worth reminding people about it!
Thank you. For some reason I had not seen that article before and it is very helpful.
This insanity has been in the fine print of Vatican II since at least 1970, when Cardinal Willebrands announced that “We shall have to rehabilitate Martin Luther.”
If they canonize Luther, then they’ll have to canonize Judas Iscariot as well, since there’s little difference between the two….though I suppose they’ll never do it, for one reason only: the Protestants would never agree to that, and we mustn’t displease the Protestants now, must we. After all, that’s the real goal here: to merge the Church with the Protestant sects, in order to grease the skids for a One World Religion.
I’d have to say that Bishop Galantino, along with the rest of his fellow apostates, despises the Church as much as Luther did. And therefore, they despise Our Lord. Woe to them and their willful, foolhardy blindness.
BTW, that statue of Luther looks like it’s made out of cherry chocolate or some such, like some sort of grotesque Easter Bunny. I’m sure it’s hollow…..
RCA Victor,
Agree about the statue. It’s far too flattering. I would have preferred to post one of the usual pictures of him which are decidedly UN-flattering – you can tell I’ll never make the “ecumenical ministry” in my local parish…
Still, the statue won the day because it’s just too incredible that any pope would have arranged such a statue to be placed in the Vatican – what next: a statue of David Cameron holding Theresa May’s hand in the European Parliament? Or Kim thingummy Un in Washington DC?
Gimme a break!
Well Ed it seems you only reap what you sow after all . Mr Luther said that the Souls in Heaven would be like unto Snow on a Dungheap . Maybe that’s the statement that ridiculous looking Statue was meant to make .
I actually do think they will try to canonise Martin Luther. I wouldn’t be surprised at all. He would then be Vatican II’s crowning glory!
This is all so desperately sad. I can hardly believe the downhill slide in my life time and I’m not dead yet! Our Lady, help of Christians, pray for us!
Crofterlady,
So, you’re not dead yet? That’s a relief. I was just about to contact your family to check that out 😀
Still, you’re back with us now, in the land of the
livingblogging…It simply beggars belief that Luther is being praised by high prelates in Rome and elsewhere, shows just how far many in our Modernist hierarchy have departed from the true religion.
Luther died an excommunicated heretic, a formal decreee of the Church that cannot now, or ever, be revoked. Here’s a link to the Decree of Excommunication: http://www.papalencyclicals.net/leo10/l10decet.htm
Well worth a read, if only to see how far removed our Post Vatican II Roman Pontiffs are in terms of orthodoxy and defence of the true religion from all of their pre-conciliar predecessors.
Athanasius,
Thank you for that – I’m looking forward to reading it asap, if only because it’s highly unlikely to be politically correct 😀
Athanasius,
That’s strong stuff! If only we had a pope like that today, to completely pull the rug from the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant schism.
What do you think was the programme on channel Histoire this evening? It was an apology of Martin Luther:
https://www.histoire.fr/programmes/martin-luther-les-indulgences-du-pape-l%C3%A9on-x-54300
Strange, is it not? It is unbelievable! What a coincidence!
Lionel,
I think there are articles and documentaries about him just now because this month, October, 2017 is the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation / Revolution.
Probably, Margaret Mary!
Martin Luther was no saint. He was very bad tempered and sexually permissive, so I think even this crazy pope would have a hard time putting the case for his canonisation.
Maragret Mary,
They’re not interested in canonising him just yet. The agenda is to get Catholics to believe that the old heretic was actually just misunderstood. Aye right! The Pope who excommunicated him understood exactly what he represented and made the evil quite clear to the entire Church.
M M . Don’t underestimate Franny . If we would have been told 10 years ago that there would be a Statue of Mr Luther ( and I don’t mean Lex ) adorned in the Vatican along with a so called Pope gushing over the great Benefits of The Reformation we would have said never . In fact. William Hill would have given you 10,000 To 1 odds on that NEVER happening.
Ad also Bet my Granny’s Pension book that this Shindig and Knees Up by the Lutheran Heretics was paid of course by US . Over 1000 of them put up in the Eternal City . It’s amazing how far Peters Pence can go .
FOOF,
I presume the Lutherans going to Rome would arrange their own accommodation, just as the rest of us have to do when going there, but if there are any other costs involved it would, indeed, be interesting to know who foots the bill.
Everywhere you go on the internet, Luther is being praised for his rebellion, and Catholic teachings like indulgences are mentioned, as if he proved them to be a bad thing. That’s not the case. I was always taught that indulgences are all part of God’s merciful forgiveness. Wouldn’t you think Pope Francis who talks about mercy all the time, would correct the Lutherans on this?
Lily,
I was taught the same thing about indulgences. I think this video will help people who are caught up in Luther’s error about indulgences.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpdUZ3kWjM8&w=1131&h=636%5D
This video should be very helpful for the minimally catechized, but this priest is way too perky for me! I also notice that his website features links to Bishop Robert Barron and “Church Militant.” Bad news, Father!
While we’re struggling in the midst of this darkness, I’m also waiting for Pope Francis to make it even worse by issuing a new type of indulgence: the self indulgence….since that is exactly what he is encouraging Catholics to practice….and insulting those who refuse.
RCA Victor,
LOL! I knew someone would say something like that, especially when he signed off as “Father Mike”!
I agree, he’s “way too perky” but at least he’s got the doctrine right!
I don’t know about Bishop Barron although I give Church Militant a body swerve these days.
I just got his video on YouTube and didn’t see his website, so I must be more careful. Useful video this time, though – I won’t risk him again in case he’s not reliable on everything.
Fidelis,
No need to apologize – his doctrine is sound, as you said, though his personality is rather undignified for a priest.
Sometimes I wonder if these blog hosts really pay attention to whom they are linking – like Vox Cantoris, who for a long time had Michael Voris’ spiritual director’s blog linked. The same priest – Fr. Nicholson – who took a cheap shot at Fr. Gruner the day after he died.
(I complained about it twice, and they finally removed the link, though i don’t know if it was my complaints that woke them up.)
RCA Victor,
I can’t see any website for “Father Mike” that has links. The one I looked at briefly just now was this one, “selling” Father Mike as a really with-it kinda guy. I mean, he seems nice, pleasant etc. But he is the very last person in the entire world that I would ever trust with a serious confidence (If I had one, that is. Boring, boring, boring li’l ole me…)
You’ll get my drift though. Why do they think all that stuff about favourite TV shows etc …. well…. matters?
I wish some with-it priest would take a minute to come on here and explain that “me, me, me” mentality to us, for I just don’t get it. At all.
Editor,
That site is apparently a campus ministry (Newman) in Minnesota somewhere. Father Mike’s own website is linked in a little graphic lower right in his video, a gray-blue circle with diamond-shaped points in it..
If his main audience is college students, that would explain somewhat his adoption of the cool, hip persona. Then again, I used to be a college professor back in the 80s, but I was never cool or hip…hmmm…maybe that’s why I never go tenured….
Fidelis,
As RCA Victor says, that priest’s doctrine is sound – he’s just not very “priestly” as we used to say back in the good old days before we had “Father Mike” and “Father Joe” blah blah…
Couldn’t you just imagine him saying “Look me up on Twitter” and “Like me on Facebook” …?
Not my cup of tea or dose of incense, or whatever…
That’s not to cast aspirins on his “ministry” – please God he will be doing some good. It does concern me, though, that bishops are placing young priests into “youth ministry” situations, instead of into parish work. That immediately creates a false scenario, as if the souls of young people are any different from the souls of older people (like RCA Victor 😀 )
The idea is that if the young priest can attract the young person to the Faith, that’s that, then, init… whereas, it doesn’t work like that. I could write a book (well, a short story, at least, OK a poem…) about the kind of things youngsters say about “hip” priests cast in the mould of the “Father Mikes” of this world. I have yet to meet one who fell for the ruse.
” this priest is way too perky for me! ” Well, that’s one way of putting it. I would say that his diction is dreadful since he gabbles and swallows his words. However, what he says, despite his way of saying it, is good. Indeed, the Church has never sold indulgences! I would love to gain a plenary indulgence, but what I know about them is that they are rather difficult to gain.
This statue is reminiscent of The Mask of the Red Death. Since it appears to be made to look like wax, best thing would be to light it and burn it……
It just occurred to me whilst writing this that perhaps the idea was indeed to use it as an incendiary bomb, by venerating Luther in the Vatican, and thus start a conflagration.
Young Catholics oppose the desecration of the Cathedral of Saints Michael and Gudule (Brussels)
The conciliar church of Belgium unashamedly announced that for the 500th anniversary of Protestantism, it would make the Cathedral of Saints Michael and Gudule available to Protestants to celebrate their service!
Lionel,
My goodness! My heart was pounding watching that short clip, especially at the end when the police removed the young men one at a time. How shocking! They are wonderful young men, defending the Faith, and only a handful of them! The majority, as ever, going along with the scandal, the blasphemous use of a Catholic cathedral to celebrate the Protestant schism – how incredible is it, that young Catholics are forcibly removed by policemen, while the congregation comprising Protestants and apostate Catholics remains seated.
Christ’s words spring to mind, an assurance for those young men who did not deny, but defended Christ, and a terrible warning for the apostates participating in that scandal: If you deny Me in the presence of men, I will deny you in the presence of My Father in Heaven.”
Thank you for posting that video clip, Lionel. I found it very moving indeed. God bless those faithful young men.
Lionel,
Bravo! Those young men are giving a very strong witness to the Faith. It’s great to see young people praying in those circumstances, but I can’t help wondering how they managed to know enough to make that prayerful protest! They must be from traditional families, surely?
Michaela,
Indeed, they come from traditional families.
Some persons suspect them to be “sedevacantists”.
Maybe they are, however I would like these persons to bring proofs.
For my part, I think that they are just as we are dismayed by the behaviour and initiatives of Pope Francis and of the conciliar bishops…
Today is celebrated in the Lutheran world as “Reformation Day” so I suggest that we pray very hard for our non-Catholic friends, relatives and the wider Protestant community today, that they come to see the truth about Martin Luther’s revolutionary attack on Christ’s Church, and, hopefully, return to the fold.
Check out the joint statement – utter betrayal on the part of the Pope – and then pray for him, even harder than we pray for our non-Catholic friends.
FROM ZENIT REPORT…
“We are very thankful for the spiritual and theological gifts received through the Reformation,” said a joint message signed October 31, 2017, by the Lutheran World Federation and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity on the conclusion of the year of the common commemoration of the Reformation.
According to the statement, Lutherans and Catholics “are profoundly grateful for the ecumenical journey that we have traveled together during the last fifty years”. The statement cited “common prayer, worship and ecumenical dialogue” as contributing to “removal of prejudices” and greater “mutual understanding.
“We begged forgiveness for our failures and for the ways in which Christians have wounded the Body of the Lord and offended each other during the five hundred years since the beginning of the Reformation until today,” the statement said. Read entire Joint Statement here
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