Monday, June 25, 2012

'We cannot celebrate a sin'

From the news agency of the German dioceses (KNA), via the news website of the Diocese of Münster:
Kurt Koch for commemoration and acknowledgment of guilt
Ecumenism Cardinal: Reformation is no reason to celebrate
There is no reason to celebrate the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation, in 2017, in the opinion of the "ecumenical cardinal" of the Vatican, Kurt Koch. He pleads for, not an anniversary, but a "reformation memorial", said the President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity on Tuesday night (04/24/2012) in Vienna: "We cannot celebrate a sin." On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther published 95 theses on the state of the Church, which started the Reformation and led to the secession of the Protestant churches.

He was aware that, with his statement, he might be perceived as an "anti-ecumenist," Koch said. He expects to make an anniversary commemoration a "two-sided admission of guilt", following the model of reconciliation seeked by John Paul II in 2000. The commemoration of the Reformation would then lead to progress in the ecumenical discussion of the churches.  With the atonement plea in the the Jubilee Year of 2000, the pope apologized extensively for the first time in 2000 years for the errors and sins of Christians. Among these, John Paul II denounced the division of Christendom.

A little something on the day we commemorate the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession.... just to show that the opinions are not all agreed... at least yet.... so, well, the work goes on...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Luther came to reform, but the Roman Catholics rejected him. They still do. What else is there to say.

Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic church has yet to admonish the thousands of daughter congregations in the third world that enjoy mixing animism and satanism with Catholicism. "We cannot celebrate a sin." Yeah, ok........

~~Cafeteria Lutheran

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with the Catholic bischof insofar as he notes that the division is sinful.

Had Rome not broken with the East 500 years earlier and had Rome adopted the Augsburg confession or worked to adopt a position compatible with it, that would really be something to celebrate.

Rome's intractable and overbearing autocracy in error first divided it from all the other bishops in the East and eventually lead to the protest that thoroughly and sinfully fractured the church into millions of pieces in the West.

Anonymous said...

So it is a way for those who hold strong opinions to vent their passion on an issue while offering little real opportunity to shape those resolutions which the floor committees write and present to the delegates.

Was it intentionally designed to be dysfunctional or what?

Anonymous said...

Once again I must remark: Who gives a "flying fig" what the Roman Catholic Church says - EVER!?!

Anonymous said...

Ah, yes. When will Rome and the Eastern Orthodox churches reconcile?

Medieval Rome allowed unbiblical doctine to infiltrate the church to justify raising an obscene amount of money.
The Roman Catholic church no longer squeezes its adherents of revenue in order to build luxurious palaces, er, I mean cathederals. The priests no longer live like greedy sultans while the 99% starve. Why not admit that doctrines such as indulgences and purgatory are money making scams that can now be discarded. No one will sue if the Roman Catholic Church admits Luther was right. What does it have to lose by reforming itself?

Anonymous said...

From a Roman Catholic perspective http://www.churchmilitant.tv/daily/?today=2012-06-27