Luther’s theology was rooted in his anguish
The traditionalist blog Rorate Caeli republished an account by Bishop William Adrian of Nashville – originally published in the Wanderer 50 years ago – of the life of Martin Luther. Bishop Adrian argued that the heart of Luther’s thought was the denial that man can avoid sin. He quoted the historian Mgr Peter Guilday as saying that Luther was obsessed with his own inability “to overcome sin”, and so launched a new theology in which man’s efforts were nothing and God’s will everything.
As a young monk, Luther struggled with anguish at the idea of losing his soul. He overworked, and wrote to a friend: “I seldom have time for reciting the Divine Office and celebrating Mass.”
Reading William of Ockham, a medieval thinker condemned by the Church, was a turning point for Luther: there he found the idea that God’s will was supreme, and unpredictable. God could as readily command a man to hate God as to love him. So, Luther said, one can do nothing to avoid sin; all that counts is whether God chooses to save us.
In defending his new theology, “Luther became more bold, more proud, more vulgar. He thought himself inspired – that only he spoke the truth. When he was excommunicated by Leo X in 1521, he became very bitter toward the Papacy, and called it the agent of the devil – the anti-Christ.”
Is there a ‘war’ against Pope Francis?
Andrew Brown of the Guardian wrote that the debates over Communion for the divorced and remarried had brought the Church to its most serious crisis in decades.
Brown claimed that, among bishops, “between a quarter and a third” are passively resisting Francis’s work, “and a small minority are doing so actively”.
But, he added, the more it seemed Francis was changing the teaching of his predecessors – specifically St John Paul II – “the easier it becomes for a successor to reverse his”. He concluded: “No one can know whether his successor will attempt to contradict him – and on that question, the future of the Catholic Church now hangs.”
The clever language of the alt-right is a trap
At Carrots for Michaelmas, Haley Stewart warned Catholics to be careful of the alt-right. Some in the movement have produced imagery which seems appealing to Catholics – for instance, using a John Paul II quotation: “As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.” But the alt-right means something very different from what Catholics would mean.
Stewart advised: “Be sceptical of language that calls for the salvation of “Western civilisation” … when these people are talking about saving “the West”, what they mean is preserving white power. And their support for large families is not in John Paul’s line – “it’s merely because big white families produce lots of white babies”.
✣ A Polish priest has apologised for “causing scandal” after competing in a bodybuilding championship.
Fr Artur Kaproń, known as “Father Artur” among his gym buddies, became an internet sensation after coming fourth in a national competition and appearing on Fakty TVN, a flagship news programme.
News outlets praised his “impeccable figure” and said that, while some found his bodybuilding controversial, others “admire his positive energy”.
In a statement Fr Kaproń said he had made a “mistake” and that his appearance in the competition had caused a “scandal among the faithful, for which I apologise and ask forgiveness”.
Fr Kaproń said his apology came after an admonition from his ordinary. The correction from Bishop Zbigniew Kiernikowski of Legnica “allowed me to think more about my conduct”, he said.
Fr Kaproń, who is 42, told the press he had been bodybuilding since he was 16. His Facebook page has 5,000 likes and he has 3,500 followers on Instagram.
Fr Waldemar Wesołowski, a spokesman for the diocese, said priests were not prohibited from taking part in sports activities but that giving interviews to the media and appearing in a such a public event were another matter.
✣The week in quotations
The viral content of its day The Archbishop of Canterbury on Luther’s 95 Theses Evening Standard
Unprecedented generational conflict has been taking place Pope Francis on post-1960s Europe Address to European leaders
I am very worried something will explode Cardinal Brandmüller on the Church’s conflict over the dubia Frankfurter Allgemeine
Priests shouldn’t just say Mass, jump in their car and rush off to Mass elsewhere Bishop Lang of Clifton The Tablet
✣Statistic of the week
113 MPs calling for a ban on pro-life vigils outside abortion clinics Source: Guardian
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