Posted on 11/08/2015 6:52:07 PM PST by ebb tide
Aqua regia ("the king's water") is a mixture of acids which dissolves gold. It does one heck of a job:
A useful short history of the king's water can be found here.
Since 1965, Catholicism has had its own version of aqua regia, and the Church has been guzzling it. It's called ecumenism, but it has gone well beyond rational discussion to a positive hysteria--ecumania, if you will. And it appears to have made ecumaniacs of the USCCB, what with their recommendation for expanded intercommunion.
Sounds positively ecumaniacal, in fact. A better dissolver of Catholic teaching you will not find.
Look, those close to me and my handful of devoted readers know I'm a convert from mainline Protestantism. I wasn't practicing much before I converted. Honestly, if a Religion Detector Monitor had existed and I'd been hooked up to it, it probably would have read "Deist with a healthy measure of appreciation for Christendom and the Bible."
I like to think that I've spent the last sixteen years becoming a somewhat useful disciple of Christ in His Catholic Church. Lord knows, I've had my spiritual bumps on the way, and my worldview has shifted from 1999--in some ways, radically.
And my beloved wife and I have had some less than smooth sailing. We dropped her income when we had our second. And then our third came along--three kids in three calendar years plus 10 days. We've been crammed seven of us into 880 square feet with no basement or garage--that back in 2010. My car is older than all our kids. We've had other financial turbulence I'd rather not discuss.
Still, discipleship costs. I can accept that.
And then I read that we really need to share the Eucharist with the titular Evangelical Lutherans (as opposed to, say, the evangelical Lutherans in the Missouri Synod--from whom the late Fr. Neuhaus sprang). Despite the fact that, you know, they don't believe in all that Catholic crap.
Huh. But, apparently, that's not enough to deny the source and summit of the Christian life, the sacrament of Catholic unity, to members of an ecclesial community which is drifting further away from us in oh-so-many-ways.
The ELCA says that abortion is often a "morally responsible choice." And while it claims to frown on abortions after "fetal viability," baby-killing Doctor George Tiller was a member in good standing of the ELCA, as the church website solemnly notes. [And don't even try to jump into my face suggesting I'm happy with Tiller's murder. WRONG.] Yeah--can't wait to gather around the alt--er, table and sing Kumbaya.
But, we must march ahead. Forward, forward--always forward, eh, yes? No.
I mean, really--communion with the ELCA immerses Catholic witness in a vat of aqua regia, turning her gold into powder. On what basis do we require anyone to hold to the Catholic faith--much less to be properly disposed--before approaching the altar?
If you have a daughter undergoing first communion prep, why does she have to go to confession before receiving when the Lutherans do not?
Or, more topically: Lutherans remarried after divorce: come on down for this moving ecumenical moment!
Catholics--not so fast!
I'm sure the accusation of phariseeism, older brotherism, the chirpy "it's an evangelization opportunity/eating with sinners!"--all the usual airhead darts--are being nocked to the bowstring by the usual suspects. Allow me to retort:
More seriously, at least my rule (the Eucharist for properly-disposed Catholics) has the force of Tradition, reason and consistency behind it. As a convert undergoing the conversion process, I was escorted out at the end of what was known as the Mass of the Catechumens. And it made perfect sense to me. I approached the Eucharist by careful steps--as a disciple--secure in the confidence I was doing the right thing. Non sum dignus, but I'll get there.
More the fool me: I should have waited until the ecumenical dialogue with my former church had sufficiently progressed--that way, the Eucharist would have come to me instead. "Oh, good for the Catholics to grow up like that and share."
If you need any further proof that the Catholic Church's confidence in her own teachings has largely dissolved in the acid bath of ecumenical fervor, look no further than this "breakthrough."
So Related to a post from the other day, My Comment, I Will Repeat.
“How could they share Communion when they are not in communion with the Church??? Well then the answer is simple, Sorry but No! Repent, Return to communion with the Church and then Share Communion in the Church.”
God Bless
The Other post on same subject. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3356561/posts
Bold font for all the airheads around here who parrot that.
I am in total agreement with DP.
The Catholic church does not allow intercommunion with the Eucharist with ANY protestant denomination....
Tell that to the USCCB. They have just sent their petition to Rome to do so.
How do you think Papa Tango will respond?
The document seeks reception of the Statement of Agreements from The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU).
Ignorance is bliss, isn't it?
I am sure that the fact that the ELCA is pro-abortion has NEVER CROSSED THE MINDS OF ANY OF THE BISHOPS INVOLVED FOR A SINGLE INSTANT. What conceivable connection could abortion have to the entirely, totally separate issue of Communion???
"Woe to the pastors, that destroy and tear the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord." Jer 23:1
"Most Holy Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - I adore Thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges, and indifferences whereby He is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of Thee the conversion of poor sinners." ~ Angel of Fatima
We are called to pray for our Bishops and our Pope, and now (God help us!) they all certainly need our prayers.
Jesus promised that He would not leave us orphans; that we would have a Church to guide us. Maybe we need him back. Our "foster parents" aren't doing all that well.
NO....I don't think that the pope has the authority to allow non-worthy people to receive the Eucharist, perhaps unless an extraordinary circumstance existed, and for a Catholic to receive "communion" in a protestant service would be meaningless.
I would have no idea of how you feel, but seeking a solution to a problem isn't solving it, it merely points out that negotiations could lead to a possible solution.....The Catholic Eucharist will remain the true Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, under the appearance of bread and wine and the Lutheran communion will remain bread and wine/grape juice sometimes.
§3 Catholic ministers may lawfully administer the sacraments of penance, the Eucharist and anointing of the sick to members of the eastern Churches not in full communion with the Catholic Church, if they spontaneously ask for them and are properly disposed. The same applies to members of other Churches which the Apostolic See judges to be in the same position as the aforesaid eastern Churches so far as the sacraments are concerned.
§4 If there is a danger of death or if, in the judgment of the diocesan Bishop or of the Episcopal Conference, there is some other grave and pressing need, Catholic ministers may lawfully administer these same sacraments to other Christians not in full communion with the Catholic Church, who cannot approach a minister of their own community and who spontaneously ask for them, provided that they demonstrate the Catholic faith in respect of these sacraments and are properly disposed.
Before then, the Catholic Church did not allow ANY non-Catholic from receiving communion UNLESS they converted first. NO EXCEPTIONS.
Why the change? Look no further than Vatican II's false ecumenism.
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