- Mar 18, 2014
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No one can argue that much evil has been done on both sides. That does not excuse what the Papacy did in taking advantage of the masses of people who looked to the Church for salvation.
So, yes, I think Luther was justified in the stance he took against the Catholic Church he was a part of. He obviously did not get everything right, but his protest of the sale of Indulgences, for example, was entirely merited. He would have been justified enough in protesting such things even by moral standards, but that the word of God absolutely supports rejecting Indulgences, there can be no doubt.
No one has the right to buy and sell salvation, no matter who they are or how they go about it.
I think that the intentions of Martin Luther were not mistaken. He was a reformer. Perhaps some methods were not correct. But in that time, if we read the story of the Pastor, a German Lutheran who then converted when he saw reality – he became Catholic – in that time, the Church was not exactly a model to imitate. There was corruption in the Church, there was worldliness, attachment to money, to power…and this he protested. Then he was intelligent and took some steps forward justifying, and because he did this. And today Lutherans and Catholics, Protestants, all of us agree on the doctrine of justification. On this point, which is very important, he did not err. He made a medicine for the Church…--Pope Francis
Full text: Pope Francis' in-flight press conference from Armenia
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