The Pope’s Preacher Says Luther Was Right

British religion reporter Christopher Howse tells about a sermon from Pope Benedict XVI ‘s preacher, Fr. Raniero Cantalamesa, that basically concedes that Luther was right on justification. Well, sort of.

This was in the context of the Joint Declaration on Justification between the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation. We confessional Lutherans deny that this accord was a true agreement, but this sermon–published in the book Remember Jesus Christ–faults Catholics for neglecting justification. Howse’s discussion, however, also shows the differences that remain.

From Christopher Howse, Luther was right, says the Pope’s preacher – Telegraph:

It is surely true that “the great majority of Catholics have lived their whole lives never having directly heard preaching on the free gift of justification by faith without too many ‘buts’ and ‘howevers’.” Indeed many might say they don’t believe in justification by faith.

I was struck by the remark about justification because it came in a meditation by Father Raniero Cantalamesa, a Franciscan, preached to the papal household in the presence of Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. So it was not made in a Lutheran spirit hostile to Catholic orthodoxy.

Fr Cantalamesa notes that the Council of Trent, responding to the reformers, outlined a doctrine “in which there was a place for both faith and good works, each of course, in its right place. One is not saved by good works, but one is not saved without good works”. How is it then that even well-informed Catholics do not think much about salvation by faith?

“From the moment the Protestants unilaterally emphasised faith, Catholic preaching and spirituality ended up taking on, almost alone, the thankless task of recalling the necessity of good works and of a human being’s personal contribution to salvation.”

I reckon that, informally, Catholics would say that good people go to heaven. They do not, though, think that being good is achieved under one’s own steam. Sacraments play a large part in their spiritual lives, and they know sacraments are all about grace. Being “in a state of grace” and going to heaven are two sides of the same coin (as Pinkie in Brighton Rock testified).

Justification, they know, comes with Baptism, and with absolution in a good Confession – repentance in the Sacrament of Penance. Sanctification is a different kettle of fish, but they are certainly taught that no one can pump up their own levels of Faith, Hope and Charity. They’re God’s free gift.

In his discourse (published in the book Remember Jesus Christ), Fr Cantalamesa points out that “it was Martin Luther who rediscovered that the ‘righteousness of God’ [in St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, 3:25] does not point here to God’s punishment or, even worse, his vengeance in relationship with human beings, but means, on the contrary, the action by which God ‘justifies’ people.”

Something that Fr Cantalamesa says parenthetically about Luther (pictured above as an Augustinian friar by Lucas Cranach) seems a bit of a fly in the ointment: “Luther actually said ‘declares’ people just, not ‘makes’ people just, because he was thinking of an extrinsic and forensic justification, of an imputation of righteousness rather than an actual righteousness.” That, I think is an obstacle to Church unity, because Catholic believers scarcely want to be deemed justified or have justification imputed to them; they want to be made just, so that something about them, even if it is brought about by an external force, has actually changed.

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