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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, DECEMBER 30, 1983
his excommunication. In September, a U.S. team of Roman Catholic
and Lutheran theologians delivered a landmark declaration of
convergence on basic doctrines. The commission agreed that sal
vation comes only through faith. They also concurred, though,
that good works are a necessary result of the process.
Of course, neither church still understands the substance and intent of
Christian "good works." Luther and his followers rejected the Catholic
concept of works and substituted one emphasizing human faith in Christ
alone, failing to understand the necessity of having the faith of Christ to
produce godly fruits. While the Catholic church no longer is involved in
the sale of indulgences and other admittedly corrupting practices, the Pope
recently has reemphasized the importance of the doctrine of penance (as
opposed to repentance from dead works).
An editorial comment in the November 11, 1983 NATIONAL REVIEW (published by
William Buckley, a conservative Catholic) had this to say about the Luther
phenomenon:
The world into which the Saxon miner's son was born five hundred
years ago still shows like a rippled lake the effects of his pas
sage. John Paul
Q
says that he prays every night to know how to
heal the breach, as Lutheran and Catholic theologians wrestle
with their doctrinal differences. In East Germany, where the
main sites of Luther's life are located, his birthday is being
celebrated with more E9.!!!E than the hundredth anniversary of the
death of Karl Marx--the sign of a legacy the Communists cannot
ignore, even as they try to define its meaning and limit its ex
pressions.
In THE TIMES of London November 7, 1983, reporter Peter Nichols, writing
from Rome notes that Luther has been, in effect, rehabilitated, similar to
the manner of the astronomer Galileo:
His [the Pope's] letter is historic to the extent that it accepts
Luther's "profound religious feeling" and speaks of him as
"driven with burning passion by the examination of internal sal
vation.
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The Pope added in his letter published on Saturday:
"The break in the unity of the church cannot be reduced to the
lack of comprehension on the part of the authorities of the Cath
olic Church, nor solely to Luther's lack of understanding of true
Catholicism, even if both factors played a role."
The letter avoids mention of the excommunication pronounced
against Luther J2.y Pope Leo!· It is seen to be comparable to Pope
John Paul's public pronouncement on the personal integrity of
Galileo, which again did not touch on doctrinal questions or on
the behavior of Rome at the time.
In another article in the NATIONAL REVIEW, this time in its November 25,
1983 edition, columnist Erik v. Kuehnelt-Leddihn wrote:
In political matters, Luther, like Calvin, was harshly authori
tarian•..• To see Luther as the originator of modern democracy,
liberalism, tolerance, philosophical relativism, and so forth can
only be the result of a failure to distinguish between Luther and