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.
(Excerpt) Read more at lifesitenews.com ...
I will further tell you that the Mass in Pamplona was one of the most inclusive and moving ones I have attended. It was about how we are all pilgrims in this life and how and what pilgrimage should mean.
You may be sure of your beliefs, but I have seen with my own eyes otherwise, I have sat at dinners with other pilgrims talking about their experiences and heard them tell me their own stories. I was amazed at the religious diversity of the pilgrims. I had dinner on the Camino with Buddhists, Muslims, Anglicans, atheists, and Catholics.
Words and actions are two totally different things, whether you want to believe it or not.
If you saw sacrilege of the Blessed Sacrament, I want no part in your "pilgrimages".
You must be careful in extrapolating Church dogma from your experience at one or a few churches (really “parishes”).
What a few parishes in Spain (or anywhere) do is not necessarily what the “Church” teaches definitively. Certainly as we all know some parishes tolerate known abortionists and their supporters, even admitting them to the Blessed Sacrament. Is this what “the Church teaches”?
The answer to that question, before you extrapolate more from your individual experience, is “no, it’s not what the Church teaches”.
The same goes for the “come one come all” attitude the parishes you have apparently attended in Spain. They are not doing what the Church truly teaches. It doesn’t matter that they call themselves “Catholic”, anyone can do that.
Before you may say, “well someone should tell them they are doing something wrong”, I will say “Yes, I agree, someone should”.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.