How did the Catholic Church feel about Martin Luther and his religion?

Answer 1

Many topics were covered in Martin Luther's 95 theses. His primary disagreement with the Catholic church was the sale of indulgences. Indulgences were certificates that promised to lessen a soul's time in purgatory. These were being sold to finance the pope's building plans. Luther was also angered that the scriptures were not available to the common person.

Answer 2

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Catholic AnswerI don't think the Catholic Church, as such, likes or dislikes it. After all, the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, and is here to bring all people to salvation. However, if you insist on phrasing it that way, the thing that the people didn't like was having their princes do away with their Church, their priests, and their hope of salvation. They were no long able to attend Mass, go to confession, have the Bishop come and confirm their children, have a priest available to give them Last Rites, and bury them. Their entire world was changed and the Catholic Church that helped them live their lives in hope of heaven was denied them. It was not a happy time for the common man who had no say in how he would worship. Protestant AnswerMartin Luther had very different beliefs on many issues in the Catholic Church. He spoke out against the "Church" and the biggest issue was that he caused an upheaval because he opened the door for more logic in Christianity.

Answer 3

Catholic AnswerMartin Luther did not like the Catholic religion because it called him and every other sinner to "repent and believe in the Gospel" (St. Mark 1:15). Our Blessed Lord, through His Church, was calling Martin Luther to leave his sinful life behind and to practice penance to gain his eternal salvation. So he left the Church, blamed the Church and Our Blessed Lord for his sinful life; so he made up his own Church, made his own translation of The Bible (leaving out the bits he couldn't live with) and blamed everything on the Church that God founded, Our Blessed Lord founded on the Apostle Peter, and the Holy Spirit came to guide until the end of the world.

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from

Radio Replies, by Fathers Rumble and Carty, 1942

221 The power of Romanism was shattered by Martin Luther, of immortal memory.

Martin Luther is undoubtedly an outstanding figure in history. But the immortal memory of Luther will become less and less pleasant as the facts concerning him become known. Those who idealize Luther can do so only by ignoring an immense amount of inconvenient information. He was a priest of the Catholic Church, but one who was not faithful to his obligations even as a Christian. On his own admissions he was a victim of both immorality and drunkenness; and he was the most intolerant of men. Far from granting liberty of conscience, he refused to allow anyone to think differently from himself, and coolly said, "Whoever teaches otherwise than I teach is a child of hell."

265. Did not Luther give ninety reasons for leaving the Catholic Church?

He gave many excuses, but no real reasons. Before he left the Church, he was a member of a religious order, vowed for the love of Christ to poverty, chastity, and obedience. He broke all three vows. Vices, whether intellectual or moral, are excuses, not reasons, for leaving the Church.

269. Do you know of any good in Luther?

Intellectually, not much. He declared that reason was of the devil, and that the Christian must regard it as his greatest enemy. Morally, less still. St. Paul says that those who are Christ's have crucified their flesh with its vices and concupiscences. (Gal. V., 24.) That Luther indulged his vices and concupiscences is clear from his writings, where he gives disgraceful descriptions of his own indulgence in everything passionate. His diaries record shocking excesses of sensuality, which could not be printed in any decent book to-day. A true Apostle of Christ does not give vent to such expressions as, "To be continent and chaste is not in me," or, "Why do I sit soaked in wine." I do not say these things merely to detract from the memory of Luther. But it is not right that people should be duped by the thought that Luther was a well-balanced and saintly reformer. He was not entirely devoid of good qualities. He was endowed with a certain kindness and generosity. But this does not compensate for his vices. He should have controlled his sentimentality and emotional nature in the light of Christian principles. He did not, but gave free rein to his lower passions, calmly saying that a man has to do so, and will not be responsible for such conduct.

AnswerThough we can't know what exactly was in his head, we can guess. Martin Luther despised the corruption he saw in the Church at the time, with the sodomy problems and the selling of indulgences. He also had problems with the pope's authority. But instead of actually reforming the Church and cleaning out its problems, he rebelled and created an entire new religion, cutting out the parts that he did not like or that didn't coincide with his own philosophy. AnswerHe was angry with the corruption within the church.

Martin Luther did not hate Catholics. He was just against the Pope. He didn't like the idea of selling indulgences in order to raise money for the St. Peter's basillica.

Answer 4

Actually, for a whole host of reasons, although what finally drove the Pope to issue a formal bull of excommunication was to try and contain the damage done by this "infamous heretic". The Holy Father not only excommunicated M. Luther but placed all those towns in Germany where the leaders were following M. Luther and starting their own sect under pain of interdict. In other words, M. Luther was leading people away from the Church, away from final salvation, and into the stink of his own immoral corruption. He was doing something truly damnable, he was endangering other people's eternal salvation, and the princes of Germany in a craven attempt to bolster their treasuries, were going along with him and depriving the ordinary Christian peasant of his religion and his hope of salvation. For the full text of the bull, see the link below.

Answer 5

Luther posted 95 complaints against Pope Leo and the Church on the Cathedral door. When Luther refused to recant, Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther.

Answer 6

Martin Luther was denounced as a heretic and excommunicated.