To the editor:
This letter is in response to Bishop Robert Barron’s article, “Looking at Luther with Fresh Eyes,” in your June 29, 2017 issue.
Bishop Barron’s comments, based on a book he had read on Martin Luther, were confusing and disturbing. In the article’s descriptions of Luther’s “experience of grace,” his “love affair,” and his “ecstatic experience,” the seriousness of Luther’s harmful effect on countless souls was minimized. Bishop Barron even seemed to conclude that both the criticism and the celebration of Luther’s solas could simultaneously be appropriate, thus helping to pave the way for ecumenism.
Luther’s solas (sola scriptura, sola fide, sola gratia) stemmed from disturbing and depressing ideas that were (and remain) false. It would be interesting to see a good article on this topic in a future issue of the Catholic Herald.
While Luther could indeed have had some charming personality characteristics or some valid points to be made about individuals in the Church of his time, what really matters are Luther’s actions, the effects thereof, and, of course, the truth. Rather than looking at Luther with “fresh eyes,” it would be more appropriate to contemplate our Father’s Forever Eyes and Eternal Truth.
Jan Mailloux, Mineral Point