The Reformation and the Deformation of Orthodoxy, by F.X. Cronin

The Facts of Life Series: The Reformation

The Reformation is one of history’s great misnomers.  For it reformed almost nothing then and now.  A more apt name for that era would be the Deformation, though that name is probably too benign, given the devastating effects of this movement and its many derivations that have so infected Western culture since 1517.

For this Sixteenth Century movement was truly a heretical assault on the nature of truth and its content.  A deliberate denial and “deformation” of the dogma of the Faith.  A distortion of God’s very nature and a rejection of His gift of reason.  A revolt against the Church’s God given authority.  An ecclesial error of immense effect leaving us with virtually no real unity despite Jesus’ commands and prayers to the contrary.  A flagrant fragmentation of the Body of Christ with over thirty-six thousand Protestant denominations worldwide now.  The evidence is clear.  As Jesus said, “A tree is known by its fruit.”  So too is the fruit of these “deforming” heresies.  …