Posted on 09/05/2023 8:08:04 PM PDT by ebb tide
A pro-LGBT Brazilian archbishop is invoking Pope Francis' apostolic letter on liturgical formation and the documents of Vatican II to justify his choice to administer Holy Communion to a Muslim sheikh at a funeral service.
"Every reception of Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ was already desired by Him in the Last Supper," argues the archbishop of Londrina, Geremias Steinmetz, quoting Pope Francis in a clarification issued on the diocesan website on Aug. 30.
A video of Abp. Steinmetz giving the Sacred Host to Sheikh Ahmad Saleh Mahairi at the funeral of Cdl. Geraldo Majella Agnelo on Aug. 28 went viral on social media, sparking outrage among faithful Catholics.
In the video, Sheikh Mahairi, founder of the King Faisal Mosque in Londrina, accepts the host in his hand and leaves without consuming it.
The Muslim leader told the diocese's vicar general that he consumed the Eucharist after sitting down in his pew.
In his clarification, the archbishop defends the sheikh's reception of Communion on the grounds that "he participated in the Eucharistic celebration, as a friend, and, entering the communion line, received the Body of Christ."
Steinmetz said that Mahairi was friends with the late Albano Cavallin, a former archbishop of Londrina, who had explained to the Muslim leader many years ago that "the Eucharist is the body of Jesus, who is considered to be a prophet of Islam."
It is up to the pastors to warn those present at the right moment about the truth and the discipline to be strictly observed.
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Quoting Vatican II's Nostra Aetate, the declaration on the relations of the Church with non-Christian religions, Steinmetz noted that the Church regards Muslims "with esteem" since "they adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all-powerful, the creator of Heaven and earth, who has spoken to men."
Muslims "take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God," Steinmetz continued, quoting verbatim from Vatican II.
Steinmetz cites the second part of paragraph three from Nostra Aetate, which explains how Muslims revere Jesus as a prophet, even though they do not acknowledge him as God, and honor Mary, await Judgement Day and value the moral life.
The archbishop also quotes Desiderio Desideravi, Pope Francis' most recent apostolic letter on the liturgy, stressing how "no one earned a place" at the Last Supper but "all had been drawn there by the burning desire that Jesus had to eat that Passover with them."
Every reception of Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ was already desired by Him in the Last Supper.GabTweet
Steinmetz cites paragraph six of the papal document:
Before our response to his invitation — well before! — there is His desire for us. We may not even be aware of it, but every time we go to Mass, the first reason is that we are drawn there by His desire for us. For our part, the possible response — which is also the most demanding asceticism — is, as always, that surrender to this love, that letting ourselves be drawn by Him.
Noting that the Eucharist is a "sign of charity of the unrepeatable love of God manifested in the Cross of Jesus," Steinmetz added a quotation from Desiderio Desideravi urging his flock to "abandon our polemics to listen together to what the Spirit is saying to the Church."
In March 2004, Cdl. Francis Arinze, then prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, issued a decree stating that "Catholic ministers [can] licitly administer the sacraments only to the Catholic faithful."
Cardinal Arinze's decree, titled Redemptionis Sacramentum: On Some Things to Observe and Avoid About the Most Holy Eucharist, urged pastors to ensure that non-Catholics do not receive Communion when celebrating Holy Mass for a large crowd.
"It is up to the pastors to warn those present at the right moment about the truth and the discipline to be strictly observed," Arinze wrote.
The Vatican instruction also asked for "particular care to be taken that the communicant immediately takes up the wafer in front of the minister so that no one goes away carrying the Eucharistic species in his hand."
"If there is a danger of profanation, Holy Communion is not to be distributed in the hand of the faithful," Redemptionis Sacramentum added.
In September 2021, Abp. Steinmetz joined leftist Mayor Marcelo Belinati in support of a bill demanding the creation of a municipal council for LGBT rights.
"We know the reality that the LGBT community faces," the archbishop said. I wanted to say that we are not talking about the LGBT people who live at the highest levels of society but the one who is at the bottom. The one on the street. He is the one who suffers."
Faithful Catholics hit back in a letter warning that the approval of the council's bill would make gender ideology official.
Ping
Gee, as a Protestant I was not allowed to take communion at a Catholic funeral in 1972. I did not no any better so I went to the altar and received communion.
The archbishop and Bergoglio should, however, know better.
Exactly!
I did that once as a child, because I was wanting to partake of the Body. I knelt down like everyone else did, and stuck my tongue out. The priest placed the host on my tongue.
My parents were aghast, and I think it was my First, but very unofficial, Holy Communion. In my grade, it was the older kids who received, but at my new school, I was older than the first communicants. I was moving mid year. So it seemed like I was old enough to go ahead. I think my parents were a little upset with me, and may have chided me afterwards, but the truth of the matter is that I already believed, even though not fully learned about such things. Kind of a supernatural phenomenon. I believed, and still do, that when He said “This is my Body” that He meant it.
Somehow I doubt that the Muslim in this article believed he was receiving Our Lord.
Somehow I doubt neither Bergoglio nor the archbishop believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
I grew up Methodist-before it went hard left. Everyone who believed that Jeus was the Son of God and died for our sins could take communion.
Wouldn’t it be blasphemous in Islam for a Muslim to take Communion since the Church does teach it truly is the Body of Christ the 2nd person of the Holy Trinity and therefore God? Islam teaches there is NO GOD BUT ALLAH. They are quite bonkers on this.
The muslim didn’t consume the Host. He pocketed it.
The article reads that he did eat it.
I wouldn’t surprised, to be used in some ritual like a Black Mass.
They don’t believe. These guys are practically Unitarians.
Catholics have seven Sacraments that are received with a procedure, two of them are Penance and Holy Communion.
In order to receive Holy Communion, you must go to confession to free your soul of sin. Penance means going to confession.
After being accepted as receiving that Sacrament, you may receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion.
This present boob of a pope either doesn’t know that or doesn’t care. I think it is the latter, but it could be the former.
Sorry if I intruded on your conversation, but this lack of Catholicism in this pope makes me ...a little annoyed.
But maybe deep down he was signalling that he wants to convert.
It was NOT an empty thoughtless act on his part, IMHO.
Plus, these muslims are converting in increasing numbers.
Best thing Christians can do is just ask friends to convert.
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