Vatican Speaker Downplays Father Luther's "Rehabilitation"

This comment from EKD President Nikolaus Schneider is "a bit exaggerated", said Lombardi this Saturday for journalists in Freiburg.

Vatican City (kath.net/KNA) Vatican speaker Federico Lombardi [SJ] has admonished the interpretation, which suggested a >>de facto<< rehabilitation of Martin Luther by Pope Benedict XVI. This suggestion is >>a bit exaggerated<<, said Lombardi on Saturday for journalists in Freiburg. The Advisory President of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Nikolaus Schneider, had [also on FaithWorld] described the words of the Pope at an ecumenical meeting in Erfurt subsequently as >>a de facto rehabilitation<<.

Lombardi said, Benedict XVI. has underlined the >>depth of faith<< of the reformers. For the Pope, the visit to the place where Luther lived and believed, had been very significant. The Head of the Catholic Church had desired this meeting with representatives of the Evangelical Church right in Erfurt, because >>the divine questions of Luther were a central point of the entire trip<<, said the speaker.

Link to kath.net...

Additionally,

He also said the Faith can not be negotiated, here...