From Catholic News Service, news that every part of the rumor, spread by The Times, that Pope Benedict XVI would be working on "rehabilitating" Martin Luther, is false:
Rumors that the Vatican is set to rehabilitate Martin Luther, the 16th-century leader of the Protestant Reformation, are groundless, said the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi.
News reports in early March alleged that Pope Benedict XVI was dedicating a planned September symposium with former doctoral students to re-evaluating Luther, who was excommunicated and condemned for heresy.
The story "does not have any foundation, insofar as no rehabilitation of Luther is foreseen," Father Lombardi told the Italian news agency ANSA March 8.
Vatican officials said the topic of the pope's annual summer gathering of former students this year has not yet been decided. Of the two topics under consideration, Luther is not one of them, one official told Catholic News Service.
Read the entire CNS story. The good news for The Times is that since the topic of discussion has not yet been selected or announced, the newspaper is free to come up with other issues the Pope will be discussing. Here's a list of suggested topics: media irresponsibility, media sensationalism, media bias, and media sloppiness. Oh, and: "The rehabilitation of the heretical media."
I am pleased to see this response. I was puzzled by the reports which appeared in newspapers here in Australia.
I saw Carl Olson's interview with Marcus Grodi on EWTN recently and was very impressed.
Posted by: John James | Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 06:48 PM
Thanks, John, for the kind comment.
Posted by: Carl Olson | Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 09:25 PM
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Yours sincerely
Guenther Troege
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Posted by: Guenther Troege | Monday, March 17, 2008 at 01:49 AM