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JMJ
Let's keep something in mind, while Mr. Akin's is misleading people (doing the Devil's work no doubt), I believe that he is probably sincere. In other words he is sincerely wrong. Just like Pope Francis.
This does not lessen their culpability because he should know better.
In this Liberal age, it seems that Catholics have forgotten that it is their duty to study and learn the faith.
"I didn't know" will be answered with "You should have known".
P^3
Courtesy of The Remnant
Akin: Protestants Aren’t Heretics, Catholics Should Commemorate the Reformation Featured
Written by Chris Jackson | Remnant Columnist
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Inspired by Francis commemorating the Reformation on Halloween of last year, Ecumenical events commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation are now coming to a diocese near you! Just a few examples include Grand Rapids, MI,Saskatoon, Canada, Pittsburgh, PA, Lansing, MI., and Lima, OH. Other dioceses like Orlando. FL and Pueblo, CO already enjoyed their commemorations earlier this year. Far from condemning these events, the USCCB is actually facilitating and encouraging them by posting a “2017 Commemoration of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation Resource Guide” on their website.
As the post-Conciliar Church leadership moves left at breakneck speed, it is interesting to see just how far our Neo-Catholic gatekeepers are shifting to keep up. For instance, Catholic Answers was once considered a bastion of Catholic orthodoxy and fierce defender of the Catholic Faith versus Protestantism by conservative Catholics in the 1990’s. The premiere apologist for Catholic Answers has always been one Jimmy Akin. Thus, Akin, in a sense, stands as a bellwether for Neo-Catholic thought on the latest shenanigans in the Church.
Akin’s reaction to the commemorations was not a complete surprise since he is already on record as defending Communion for public adulterers under Amoris Laetitia. However, it is still always startling to see just how far he and other Neo-Catholic apologists will go to defend non-Catholic teachings and practices as they try to square the circle of the post-Conciliar Church. For far from criticizing joint commemorations of the Protestant Revolt that lead entire nations of Christendom into heresy, schism, and apostasy, Akin instead penned a full apologia for them.
The very opener of Akin’s explanation admits that even the very idea of commemorating the Reformation offends whatever is left of his readers’ Sensus Catholicus. He states:
Exactly. The answer is that they shouldn’t. But since Francis has done it and will do it again, there must be nothing wrong with it.In addition, the fact that Mr. Akin is getting paid over $100,000 a year (as of 2010) by Catholic Answers must, at least to some degree, assist his theological “creativity.”
“Reformation” Revisionism
Akin starts by giving a brief history of the so called “Reformation.” He includes the traditional Catholic view of the “Reformation”:
Yet he treats this fully Catholic view as a museum piece that was simply a product of Catholic “animosity” towards Protestants “in the past,” as if the Pre-Vatican II Church held a juvenile personal grudge against Luther for five centuries, refusing to recognize the anniversary of his Revolt due to anger management issues.
Akin then goes on to tell how things have changed in 2017. How? Well, now Catholics and Protestants are much nicer to each other. Yes, that’s it. Although Akin goes on for a paragraph that is basically the only thing he says has changed. Thus, according to Akin, the one true Church of God simply took 500 years to finally calm down from Her hissy fit over the Reformation. Now that the Holy Bride of Christ is once again sane and rational in 2017, She is ready to listen to the calm adult voice of ecumenical reason.
Later, citing the John Paul II apology tour of the 1990’s, Akin says the Catholic Church needs to reflect on its share of blame for the Protestant Revolt:
Certainly individual Catholics sin and make mistakes and Church discipline is often adjusted to rid the Church of abuses. However, the Church as such, faithfully transmits the Deposit of Faith of the Apostles and gives us the Mass and sacraments as instruments of grace. In that regard it is spotless and sinless. And it was precisely the Faith, the Mass, and the sacraments that Martin Luther declared war on leading to the Protestant revolt.
If abuses wrought by individual Catholics including clergy had been Luther’s only disagreement, he would have been satisfied with Catholic reforms proposed to deal with these. Instead, he attacked the spotless Bride of Christ Herself for which no apology can be given. The scandal of individual Catholics is in spite of, not because of Catholic doctrine and teaching. Thus, bad behavior on the part of individuals gave Luther absolutely zero right to start his own religion, leading many of his own generation into apostasy and schism and countless spiritual descendants trapped in heresy.
The Catholic Church Somehow Seeks Unity
Akin then regurgitates the previously condemned claim that the Catholic Church is somehow still seeking Christian unity along with Protestant sects. (My emphasis in red)
In contrast, read the following from Pope Pius XI in Mortalium Animos, paragraph 7:
And here it seems opportune to expound and to refute a certain false opinion, on which this whole question, as well as that complex movement by which non-Catholics seek to bring about the union of the Christian churches depends. For authors who favor this view are accustomed, times almost without number, to bring forward these words of Christ: “That they all may be one…. And there shall be one fold and one shepherd,” with this signification however: that Christ Jesus merely expressed a desire and prayer, which still lacks its fulfillment... They consider that this unity may indeed be desired and that it may even be one day attained through the instrumentality of wills directed to a common end, but that meanwhile it can only be regarded as mere ideal.
The Church, of course, has always taught that this prayer of Christ was fulfilled in His Catholic Church which has one Faith, One Lord, and One Baptism. Thus, the Catholic Church has no need whatsoever to seek any sort of unity. Protestantism, on the other hand, has no unity. Therefore Protestants can only achieve true Christian unity by joining the one Church Christ established. As Pope Pius XI continues:
Ignoring Error Helps Fight Secularism?
Akin then repeats the ecumenical line that we now must concentrate on what unites us, as if that in any way brings those in error closer to accepting the truth. Akin states:
Akin also comments that our new enlightened ecumenical relations with Protestants helps us to fight against irreligion:
Yet this idea of focusing on commonalities to fight secularism was condemned almost word for word by Pope Pius XI:
Instead of leading Protestants out of their errors, focusing on common beliefs only builds a false, lowest common denominator type of faith where those issues that divide us are made to seem unimportant. In reality they are all that matter, as they are the errors that are impeding the Protestant from true Christian unity. In addition, the Catholic Church claiming unity with Protestant sects does not effectively fight secularism, but only reinforce relativism. The message would be sent to the secular world that it doesn’t matter what individual Christians believe as their beliefs on essential matters of religion can contradict with little consequence.
Protestants Aren’t Heretics?
Yes, Jimmy Akin then goes on to teach us that the Catholic Church was wrong to refer to Protestants as heretics for 500 years. He states:
Where to begin? First, Akin uses the John Paul II issued Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) which, for some reason decided to define “heresy” as only formal heresy. Formal heresy requires pertinacity (which the CCC changes to obstinacy).However, “formal heresy” is not necessary to be a heretic in the sense the Church has called Protestants heretics for the last 500 years. All that is necessary is that the person denies Catholic dogma. In that sense the person is at least a material heretic, thus the Church was and is fully justified in using the term.
Akin then cites the 1917 Code of Canon Law and says that Protestants would have to commit the “canonical crime” of heresy to be called heretics by the Church. This is, of course, absurd as canonical crimes are meant to apply to Catholics who are suspected of heresy. The fact that the Church already considers Protestants materially severed from the Church and thus having no ecclesiastical rights in this regard should clue Akin in that they might be heretics.
Vatican II Sleight of Hand
Akin then quotes Vatican II which states that children who are born into Protestantism can’t be accused of the sin involved in the separation. Akin then points to the 1967 Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity’s ecumenical directory which does away with the abjuration of heresy of Protestant converts in canon law saying that was only meant to apply to apostate Catholics coming back to the Faith.
There are a couple of sleight of hands going on here. The first is the Vatican II language saying children who are born into Protestantism can’t be accused of the sin involved in the separation. Note well the term “children.” The pre-Conciliar Church recognized this, which is precisely why no abjuration of validly baptized converts (Protestants) was necessary under the age of fourteen. At fourteen the former child was now assumed to have taken on the heretical beliefs of whatever sect he was a part of and was required to make a profession of faith, which contained an abjuration of heresy, upon his conversion to Catholicism.
Yet the slippery Vatican II document not only says “children who were born into these communities,” but goes on to say “and who grow up believing in Christ.” This can be interpreted as referring to adults. Yet the more traditional Fathers of Vatican II may have assumed this passage referred to children who grew up to the age of fourteen since they knew the common practice and canon law well. Thus, it is doubtful whether they meant to extend the age of non-abjuration of heresy among converts from fourteen till death with these words.
Enter the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity’s ecumenical directory of 1967, written by archliberal Cardinal Bea. Cardinal Bea seized upon the ambiguity of the Vatican II document to single handedly do away with the requirement of any Protestant to have to abjure his heresy upon conversion, no matter what his age.
Cardinal Bea’s dishonest reasoning was that the canon law requiring abjuration of heresy was only required in the case of a Catholic who had apostatized and wanted to return to the Church. This was patently untrue and opposed to how the canon was followed in practice until 1967. As stated previously, validly baptized non-Catholics over the age of fourteen who wanted to convert were required to make a profession of faith, which contained an abjuration of heresy.
Yet Bea used the pretext of this Vatican II document to create a new” interpretation” of the canon from whole cloth. And now in 2017, Neo-Catholic apologists use Bea’s fifty year old dishonest sleight of hand to defend the notion that the Church no longer considers Protestants to be heretics. Thus, to the Neo-Catholic apologist, perennial Catholic doctrine on who is and who is not a heretic was changed at the whim of a Vatican Secretariat in 1967. And we wonder how they had no problem accepting Amoris Laetitia? At this rate, if the pet parakeet of the Vatican Prefect for Liturgical Dance says birth control is ok, they will defend it.
The Truly Catholic and Charitable Approach to Protestantism
In the final analysis, the post-Conciliar ecumenical approach to Protestants is uncharitable and cruel.
First, the post-Conciliar Church does not see Protestants as individuals. Instead it insists on identifying them in groups by their errors. For the post-Conciliar Church only sees Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc. It then reaches out to the leaders of human organizations which represent these sects, not to convert their members, but in order to minimize the severity of the doctrines their members deny; therefore keeping these pour souls mired in their erroneous beliefs.
Thus the Catholic Church joining in the commemoration of the “Reformation” only reinforces to these people that God is using their sect, in the words of Vatican II, “as a means of salvation.” For, they rightly say to themselves, if the Catholic Church truly believed I was in grave danger of losing my soul in my false religion, surely it would spare no expense at letting me know this by warning me, and never ceasing to tell me. For even as Protestants they recognize that this behavior would be consistent with true Christian love for another person.
This is precisely what the Catholic Church used to do. In the eyes of God there are no Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc. There are only baptized Catholics who have been cruelly deprived of the graces of the sacraments and the sure knowledge of the Truth through the sins of heresy, apostasy, and schism committed by the very “Reformers” the VCII Church helps them commemorate and which these people now adhere to. They are trapped in an ignorance we can only hope is invincible as they struggle to see the true path of salvation steeped in intellectual darkness by the privation of truth in their false doctrines; for these are the consequence of heresy, even if it is held in good faith. Every Catholic then, should possess a holy zeal to want to help rescue these souls from the errors that keep them in misery and lead them to Truth.
In the words of Protestant convert, Orestes Brownson (1884):
[1] The Works of Orestes A. Brownson: Controversy, By Orestes Augustus Brownson, T. Nourse, 1884.
UPDATE: 9/15/2017
President of the USCCB, Cardinal DiNardo, will deliver opening remarks at Protestant "Reformation" Commemoration. The Texas Catholic Herald headline states "Houston faithfui invited to celebrate 500th anniversary of the Reformation." Notice the word "celebrate." The fact that this headline's presence in a Catholic newspaper doesn't cause outrage within the Houston-Galveston Archdiocese illustrates the crisis in a nutshell.
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