Luther Was Right, Says Pope's Preacher

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.