Monday, January 10, 2011

“The Reformation In Ten Parts”

Augustinian Priest Martin Luther after nailing his Ninty-Five Theses to the Castle Church in Wittenberg,
A proposal from Ignatius Productions and give you the opportunity to be part of this ambitious project.

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Link (here) to Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J. and his Ignatius Productions 

On June 15, 1520, Pope Leo X issued a rebuttal to Luther's 95 Theses, a papal encyclical titled Exsurge Domine. This document outlined the Magisterium of the Catholic Church's findings of where Luther had erred.

With regard to St. Ignatius, his birth, his conversion, and the foundation of his order, evidently kept pace with the necessity then existing in the Church for new auxiliaries. The very same year in which Christopher Columbus conludes his treaty with Ferdinand of Castile, and sallied forth to the discovery of a new world; God brought St. Ignatius into being, doubtless with the design that the conversion of so many barbarous and savage nations should be the fruits of the zeal and labors of his spiritual children. Six years after Ignatius, in the year 1497, Francis Xavier was born, and that same year, the first voyage of Vasco de Gama to the East Indies took place. In 1521, Martin Luther declared in the Diet of Worms, in presence of Charles V., his obstinate persistence in heresy, and retired to Wartzburg, where, becoming as he audaciously says, " a new
John, in a new Patmos," he wrote a book against monastic vows, the perusal of which depopulated a great number of monasteries. In 1521, also, Ignatius quitted the world, consecrated himself to God, and after being restored to health, retired into the solitude of Manresa, where he composed his admirable work, entitled the Spiritual Exercises, in which he threw so bright a light upon the eternal truths of religion. It was by means of this book that he collected his companions together, founded his new order, and repeopled the ancient monasteries. Ignatius and Calvin were in Paris at the same time, and both made disciples in that city. The first attached to himself a great apostolic laborer, whose life and doctrines were destined to crush heresy; while the second found a powerful supporter for the mass of errors which he desired to propagate. Finally Henry VIII. king of England, who had acquired in 1521, the glorious title of Defender of the Faith, published an edict in 1534, whereby he condemned to death whosoever should not efface the title of " Pope " from all the books or writings wherein it might happen to be inserted. That very same year, Ignatius was at Montmartre, carrying through the plan of an association destined especially for the defence of the Church, and of the Sovereign Pontiff. As for the conquests of the Catholic Faith in the two Indies, they have surpassed its losses in the north of Europe; nor is it necessary to point out how God had evidently destined the new order for the conversion of these pagan countries. An ingenious author * has calculated that St. Francis Xavier alone, gained over a greater number of souls to Christ, by converting them from the errors of Paganism, than that of all the proselytes ever made by all the heretics united.
Link (here) to History and the Life and Institute of St. Ignatius of Loyola



1 comment:

Manuel Marques Pinto de Rezende said...

If you allow me one correction, its Vasco da Gama, and not Gamo.
Its actually a funnt mistake, since Gamo is the portuguese word for deer in some parts of Portugal.

Best regards from a portuguese reader