Posted on 07/17/2003 9:33:11 AM PDT by NYer
BERLIN (AP) _ A Roman Catholic priest based in Germany was suspended Thursday for leading a high-profile open communion service at a Lutheran church in May in defiance of a papal admonition. The bishop of Trier barred Gotthold Hasenhuettl, a professor emeritus of theology at the University of Saarbruecken in western Germany, from celebrating the Eucharist and withdrew his church teaching permit.
On May 29, around 2,000 people crowded into Berlin's Gethsemane Church as Hasenhuettl distributed communion wafers among the worshippers _ Roman Catholics and Lutherans alike. He celebrated a Roman Catholic Eucharist, but the service was advertised as an ``open communion.'' ``I have come to the conclusion that, for the sake of the church's credibility, I cannot accept a priest practicing an open communion that was specifically forbidden in this form by the pope in his latest encyclical,'' Bishop Reinhard Marx said in a statement. ``I still hope that Hasenhuettl will relent and make it clear that he recognizes and follows church rules.''
Pope John Paul II in April issued a reminder that services in Protestant churches cannot substitute for Sunday Mass. In an encyclical, he branded ``unthinkable'' the practice of substituting obligatory Sunday Mass with celebrations of prayer with other Christians or participation in their liturgical services. Catholics, ``while respecting the religious convictions of these separated brethren, must refrain from receiving the communion distributed in their celebrations,'' he said.
Roman Catholics maintain that they receive the blood and body of Christ in communion, but many other Christians view communion as a symbolic re-creation of the Last Supper. Marx's diocese cited an opinion from an expert on church law that, while Hasenhuettl had offered communion to all who came ``without differentiation,'' the rules specify that non-Catholics can receive it ``only in individual cases under certain conditions.''
Hasenhuettl on Thursday urged Marx to reconsider his suspension, describing it in a letter as ``an unjust restriction of the execution of my office as a priest.'' He added that he would take his case to the Vatican if Marx refuses. Last month, another Roman Catholic priest was suspended for receiving communion at a Lutheran service held days later at the same church.
AP-ES-07-17-03 1040EDT
And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. (Matthew 10)
Leave "political correctness" to the false church. It's time for a little plain speech. Its time for a little truth! There are many homosexuals in the priesthood and in the hierarchy. Many of these are not living celibate lives, and they prey on others. They do not preach the truth of Jesus Christ because they could not do so without condemning themselves. They are in positions of authority in Chancery Offices and seek to add to their numbers by controlling vocations. They organize into "support groups" many of which are not oriented toward celibacy, but exist to provide "contacts" for sexual relationships.
Pope John Paul II in April issued a reminder that services in Protestant churches cannot substitute for Sunday Mass.
There is NO QUESTION that services at a SSPX Chapel CAN satisfy your Sunday Obligation. NO QUESTION at all. Therefore, there can no longer be any question that Rome recognizes the SSPX as CATHOLIC. Irregular, not recommended, but CATHOLIC.
However, the priest also has agreed to operate within a certain system and should abide by his promise. This doesn't meant that he shouldn't agitate for change in the relationship between Catholics and Protestants.
The best change at this point would be a clarification of the contradiction. The Pope talks of respecting the religious convictions of these separated brethren. Obviously, the most critical part of that line is the word "brethren."
The last I checked, the "brethren" brought about my Dad & Mom were part of my own family.
On August 8, 1985, John Paul II speaks of his meeting with African animists as: “The prayer meeting in the sanctuary at Lake Togo was particularly striking. There I prayed for the first time with animists” (Peter Lovest Thou Me? John Paul II: Pope of Tradition or Pope of Revolution, p. 154). It is also reported that during this meeting, while standing with the voodoo chieftain before a snake in the center of town, John Paul cast cucumber peelings on the ground in front of its entrance. Moments later, a serpent slithered forth from it. The chieftain then turned to the Pope exclaiming that the reptile’s appearance meant the snake-god had favored his offering. The pope is said to have nodded in acknowledgment.
.... In Redemptor Hominis 6 the pope states:
“What we have just said must also be applied – although in another way and with the due differences – to activity for coming closer together with the representatives of the non-Christian religions, an activity expressed through dialogue, contacts, prayer in common, investigation of the treasures of human spirituality, in which, as we know well, the members of these religions also are not lacking [emphasis Sungenis’].”
Here we notice the Pope has singled out “non-Christian religions” (which would include Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, Shintoism, Confucianism, et al) and says that we should have “prayer in common” with them.
"Equal diligence and severity are to be used in examining and selecting candidates for Holy Orders. Far, far from the clergy be the love of novelty! God hateth the proud and the obstinate mind." [2._Practical Application.]
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