Posted on 01/10/2017 7:35:43 PM PST by marshmallow
January 9, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — A German bishop is claiming that Communion for non-Catholics in mixed marriages is a very real possibility that could happen soon.
Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück said in an interview with Evangelical Press Service (Evangelischer Pressedienst, EPD) that it is “not utopian” to think that there could be shared Communion between Catholics and Protestants in 2017. Within the framework of the “ecumenical jubilee of the Reformation” of Martin Luther, who published his 95 theses against the Church in 1517, Bishop Bode is an advocate of a “solution on our side for marriages with partners from different confessions.”
According to the EPD, many Protestants already receive Communion in the Catholic Church with their partners. “We have to give a basis to that which is already in practice,” Bode said.
“In the year of commemoration of the Reformation, it would make sense to deal with how the Church of the future could look,” continued Bode, envisioning a unified Catholic and Protestant Church. “It would be too simplistic if both confessions see in ecumenism only the way as the goal.”
For Bode, the understanding of Communion in Catholic teaching is changeable in order to reach common ground for intercommunion.
Holy Communion is a sacrament in the Catholic Church that can only be received by Catholics in a state of grace. Catholics believe that bread and wine are truly changed into the body and blood of Christ. Whereas for Lutherans in Germany and elsewhere and in other Protestant denominations, communion is merely a commemorative breaking of the bread in order to recall Christ’s action.
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Is the Pope Catholic?
In my Catholic high school (I’m not Catholic) a long time ago, a Methodist student in our school was taking communion with the blessing of the Catholic fathers and brothers. The Roman Catholic Church has many sub-groups.
Why would any protestant want Catholic communion?
And vice versa?
You cant be both. Pick the denomination you believe to be the most faithful.
Why would any non-catholic consider converting to Catholicism if they're already being given (sacrilegiously) the Blessed Sacrament in their present state?
No.
They’re called “sinners.” In extreme cases, “heretics.”
The people giving Communion and the people taking it are muddleheads.
I know a man who believes completely in the entire Catholic Faith, but won’t become a Catholic because the Church does not practice inter-communion. (He’s a Methodist.)
I didn’t argue with him, but it’s totally baffling to me where he gets this CERTAINTY that the Church should practice inter-communion. I mean, WHERE does this knowledge he thinks he has come from? How could the Church be right about everything else, and wrong about this single thing?
The church allows people who support baby killing and funding baby killing to receive communion. What’s a few million protestants here and there?
AMEN.
**Imminently**
Hopefully never.
I am not Catholic and would not accept communion in a Catholic Church (not that I object, but I should not violate their standards). If an illegitimate bishop or even an illegitimate Pope said otherwise, I would ignore them.
Because in MY church 37 angels can dance on the head of a pin, and in your church, only 23 can.
Our angels spend more time in the gym.
Maybe because they know that the pageantry and love they feel in a Spanish Catholic pilgrimage church may not be available to them when they return home.
Then why don’t they just convert?
“....Why would any non-catholic consider converting....”
“....Then why don't they just convert?....”
The question you should be asking is why is the Catholic Church in some areas like along the Camino de Santiago so “accommodating” to pilgrims heading to the Cathedral of St James.
What I pointed out is in that location it has more to do with history and economics (direct & indirect) as well as trying to convert some of the pilgrims.
Along the Camino there are lots of non-catholic hikers. I have met Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, and non-believers. The church invited all into the Cathedral to pray and see majesty of the church. If you look at the conditions for being granted a Compostella, being Catholic has nothing to do with it. They ask if your journey was religious in nature, not necessarily that you were Catholic.
The point is that there are place where the Church reaches out to non-Catholics.
The Church has always reached out to non-Catholics and encouraged them to join the one, true Church. But it has never condoned giving Holy Communion, sacrilegiously, to non-Catholics.
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